North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

Melissa,

 

I’m working on a series of articles about fake scientific claims vs. the real stuff.  This group is pretty low on the gullibility scale.   There’s a lot more attention to actual, peer-reviewed, published reproducible studies. Part of that may be that this is a fairly bright group overall.  Part may be that there are a lot more exaggerated and false claims when it comes to things people would buy for their own health, rather than plant health.

 

~ Stephen

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Melissa Kacalanos
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 2:59 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] "science," and deer vs. honeyberries

 

I haven't read all these emails (too busy picking strawberries, and trying to set up ever-more-elaborate netting around them) but I think it might be worthwhile making sure we know what we mean by "science." It can mean theories tested by controlled experiments, or it can mean stuff marketed by people wearing white lab coats and using big words. A lot of stuff claims to be "scientific" as a marketing gimmick, but is not backed up by actual data. A lot of people will tell you're they're against "science" when what they're really against is this sort of "science"-labeled snake oil. A lot of people will tell you they believe in "science" when all they have is a superstitious belief that anything said by someone in a white lab coat must be true.

But back to fruit. Do deer eat honeyberries/haskaps/blue honeysuckle? I'm already planning what to plant next year, and space inside the deer fence is limited. The deer around here are ravenous. They ate most of the leaves off two of my new pawpaws! You NAFEX people told me they don't eat pawpaws! Well, they didn't eat them completely, so that still counts as relatively deer-resistant for here. Anyway, I notice that deer seem to leave various honeysuckles alone, so I'm hoping they won't eat honeyberries either. I'd rather have someone else do the experiment.

Melissa
zone 5, central NY, suburbia, deer paradise