No, I didn't accuse you of slinging shit
"Speaking of data, that's really what the focus should be on, not
shit-flinging (organic or otherwise):" (emphasis added)
-- post #21
Yes, I stand corrected. You accused me of
flinging shit. I'm not sure how that changes the context much, but apparently you think it does so we'll go with that.
I quoted one source, which you claim to be highly biased. You also, apparently, have an axe to grind against Consumer Reports. So we know at least some of the sources you don't trust. I'm not sure what sources you consider unbiased- so why don't you provide some?
And I don't mean the link you posted to the mayo clinic; the one with the first sentence that reads: "Organic baby food can limit your baby's exposure to pesticides and other potential contaminants in foods."
Hardly a wholesale indictment of the concept of organic food, and a statement which is, essentially, the argument I made in the first post. Not that pesticides are evil, not that man-made chemicals are bad, not that organic growth methods can't pose problems too- just that, whenever possible, decreasing the accumulated load of things like pesticides in our foods seems like a fairly obvious good idea for a lot of us.
I don't have an axe to grind with Consumer Reports. I've been a subscriber for over 25 years. I actually believe they are largely responsible for much higher regulation of pesticides and herbicides which is a very good thing. However, somewhere along the line they chose to narrowly focus on one aspect of pesticides and completely ignore the overall environmental benefit. They also continue to allege that infinitesimal amounts of pesticides on certain produce presents a health hazard which sure as hell has never been established. It simply feeds on the ignorance of the general public regarding the subject. It's no different than Dial trying to sell you anti-bacterial soap. They allege that since bacteria are bad, less bacteria
must be better. It's intellectual dishonesty promoting a bad idea because the solution in search of a problem creates an actual problem itself.
So where's the bias in the Mayo Clinic article? That's the subtle point you alleged, but failed miserably to establish. I never tried to make the case that non-organic food results in the same or lower pesticide residue. So that's simply strawman nonsense. If you had actually bothered to read pass the first sentence, you'd see the Mayo clinic states that organic baby food is no safer, which is what the discussion should be about in the first place. Your contention seems to be that if an already infinitesimal amount of pesticide could be reduced even farther, there must be an advantage. That is nonsensical, because it hasn't been established that it's actually harmful to begin with and lots of folks have tried. You also conveniently ignored the point that those pesticides reduce the amount of culling, which does provide an environmental benefit. At the risk of offending you by using a metaphor, in other words you try to make a mountain out of a molehill as you're conveniently ignoring the actual mountain.
But you know what? Like I said, if you want to suck down an frosty mug of roundup every morning, I don't really give a shit. Nothing could make me even remotely interested in advising you about your diet, and likewise, nothing you could say is going to make me go "Hmmm. Gee, you know, I think I'm going to go out of my way to increase the amount of pesticides I put in my body"
Got that? NOTHING. I don't care what you put on the end of your fork, and I'll be damned if after my many, many decades on this planet I'll let some jabbering tasmanian devil with god-knows-what for an agenda tell me what to put on mine.
Dig? So, go ahead, huff and puff and complain (or, if you're feeling really frisky, contribute some 'unbiased' data, please. With links), you're still not changing my mind. Ever. Period. I guess that makes me Jerry Falwell, or Pol Pot, or Dutch Elm Disease, or something.
Here we have more of your strawman rhetoric. You allege that I actually do give two shits about what you eat or what you don't. Then you proceed to burn that strawman down with the rest of your ranting. I don't give two shits what you eat or what you don't. I do care about setting myths straight and calling bullshit on obvious bullshit.
Now you only seem interested in ramping up the hostility from there and I'm just not going to play your games anymore.
Have a nice day!