permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

One can certainly measure crop health many ways, yield, specific gravity, 
IR photography, mineral content and balance etc.  Brix is useful as it can 
be checked quickly in the field and indicates a plants health by it's 
ability to make sugar; the basis for more complex carbs later.  I 
personally wouldn't worry about the mainstream co-opting it too much, they 
are so focused on yield that quality issues seldom come up.
M
At 06:59 PM 10/3/02 +0100, you wrote:
> I agree with John about the danger of using only one measurement. Brix was
> new to me as well, thanks for posting about it. It looks pretty useful, but
> ...
>
> I have concerns that if we concentrated only on high brix in food that
> industry would find (unhealthy) ways of increasing the brix measurement
> without increasing the food value. After all balance is very important.
>
> Therefore I would like it if, for example, brix together with other issues
> like regionality, soil quality, (knowing) the producer, their approach to
> farming and other issues were reported for all food for sale.
>
> Rita
> ___
> Rita van der Vorst , PhD
> Senior Lecturer in Clean Technology
> Imperial College London
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Schinnerer" <eco_living@yahoo.com>
> To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 5:36 PM
> Subject: RE: [permaculture] Re: big ag in Pc (brix)
>
>
> > Aloha,
> >
> > I'd heard of brix but never looked into it.  Just read the posted
> > article about what it is/measures.  Sounds useful - a good tool to add
> > to a rich toolbox for educating people about the nature and quality of
> > what they're eating and how it comes to be.
> >
> > And - it seems obvious to me that focusing on a single
> > approach/measurement/solution for "quality" of food (brix, as one
> > example) is not at all a permaculture way of going about anything.
> > Brix could be one element, along with more direct grower-buyer
> > relations, localized production and purchase, education of food-buying
> > public (i.e. everyone, except maybe breatharians... ;-)
> >
> > Let's not replicate the "one size fits all" approach (to anything) that
> > seems to have caused so much trouble this far.
> >
> >
> > =====
> > John Schinnerer, MA
> > -------------------------
> > - Eco-Living -
> > Cultural & Ecological Designing
> > Food - Water - Shelter - Community - Technology
> > john@eco-living.net
> > http://eco-living.net
> >
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Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM