Weeks 8-9

Article 1:
The concept of a systemic pesticide is really quite frightening, as it seems to be done to cut corners and save money, but by doing so, farmers completely overcommit to the pesticide and there isn't much opportunity for turning back. It's especially rediculous being that private corporations are the ones to test their pesticides.

This really is outrageous how it was blatantly stated that the new pesticides were harmful to the bees, but were approved anyways by congress to get them on the market. It's going to be this short-sightedness that hamstrings us in the future.

It's quite convenient how the private companies are not subjected to independant critcism over their results, which are clearly fundamentally flawed by using such a miniscule test area in comparasin to the realistic space that honey bee colonies actually use.

I'd like to know how local farmers are treating this and the various opinions and theories around the causes and solutions of colony collapse.

This video talks about how all the American farmers are loosing massive numbers of bees, but I wonder how serious this is in Canada.

Article 2:
It's somewhat distrubing that organic food manufacturers aren't forced to record their use of chemicals by quantity. This seems to take them down the same path of the unregulated pesticide manufactureres where the government just believes that the companies will do the right thing, which as one can see from the pesticide manufacturers they don't.

I'm somewhat frightened that in one report, 10% of the Organically farmed produce contained E. Coli, while it was only 2% in food farmed by conventional methods. However, this is only one report. Still not very assuring.

It's understandable why organic producers refuce to genetically modify their food, despite the obvious benefits. If they did support it, I suspect they would take a lot of flak from their supporting community, and would seem somewhat hypocritical of them.

I'd like to see what kind of chemicals -if any- local, small scale farmers use, and get their opinion on the matter.

I wonder how they know what genes to encode into the yams to make them resistant to the whatever virus kills them. Same for the nuts that wouldn't produce their tell-tale proteins that trigger allergic reactions.

Article 3:
It's too bad that the long standing  laws around milk pasturation still stand today. The data from the 1910's and 1920's definetly seem to support the mandatory processing of milk. However, I've heard many a story about local farmers drinking their own unpasturized milk and being fine! It's suppose to  be delicious.

I think it's great that Schmidt is taking a stand, and proving that the whole raw milk controversey have shifted in the last century... A point clearly needs to be proven that things have changed and it's ok to drink unpasturized milk.

I think it would be great to purchase raw milk! I've heard great things about it, however there are the obvious conerns of the hormones that are given to the cows to increase yield...

I'd like to see how farmers deal with milk pasturization, and whether they drink their milk raw or not.

Why is transporting crops across state borders not allowed? It seems rediculous, being that “even if a farmer lives close by, he cannot cross the state line”.