Pondering food, gender and Torchwood...

[fajrdrako]

I love it when TV shows focus on unexplained bits of reality. Like the disappearing bees in series 4 Doctor Who. Here's an article that reflects Captain Jack Harkness' initial monologue in Torchwood:

I can taste it! Oestrogen. Definitely oestrogen. Take the pill, flush it away, it enters the water cycle. Feminizes the fish. Goes all the way up into the sky then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. Love this planet. Still, at least I won't get pregnant. Never doing that again.

Not that the article is blaming oestrogen; it's pesticides and pollutants and new chemicals in general that that are to blame. "The research ... shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people. ... On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have "gender-bending" effects."
It's one way of dealing with overpopulation.

I wonder how much it's an option for us simply to not use these chemicals. Can we feed the world on organic foods? I know people used to say "it's all a matter of distribution of food" - isn't it more to the point to say it's all a matter of economics? And is that even true now? I suspect the world popular is so high that we need such extraordinary measures to keep the food flowing.

Comments

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

It really does come down to distribution, or more precisely local production. A distribution network that offers local producers an even break is ten times healthier. There's a series that's running in the UK press about how to correct the deficits of the modern ddistribution system.

Baby screaming, gotta go.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I certainly agree that local produce is healthier; but if there isn't enough food to go around without use of pesticides and trucking, how can the millions be fed? Even a city like, say, Toronto, in the middle of the most fertile bit of Canada, can't feed itself. The problem is exacerbated in places that can't overcome their problems.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

The problem with that is that organic produce out-produces what is made with pesticides and artificial fertilizers, usually by four-to-one, sometimes by as much as ten-to-one.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If organic out-produces - why do they bother with anything else? And why is it more expensive?

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

It's more expensive because it's more rare, but Prince Charles has been growing organic on his farms, selling it as regular produce, and making bigger profits than his neighbors. That's got the whole UK talking organic.

Pesticides are only part of the picture. The big culprit is actually fertilizers. fertilizers force the plants to grow quicker but weaker. Then they can't fight off the bugs and need pesticides, which further weaken the plant so that it needs more fertilizers and more pesticides. It's a vicious cycle -- with a hidden kick.

The hidden kick is how fertilizers work in the first place. Gotta run so I don't have time to get too technical but fertilizers steal productivity from the future from the soil, weakening the soil and in turn weakening the plants. Heavily fertilized soil quickly loses it's natural productivity and become barren neccessitating -- you guessed it -- even more fertilizers and pesticides. We're losing our farms to overfertilization.

Going cold turkey is the only way anyone knows so far to break the cycle.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This is interesting - you give me hope. Maybe the enthusiasm for organic produce will spread to Canada - I can hope! There's organic produce in our supermarkets, but not a lot of it. It's still a specialty item. Still, even as a speciality item, there's more of it all the time.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

The general sense I get from the press - all of it - seems to be that if we can't do it now, we're on our way to getting the details squared away. Whether the squaring away comes fast enough to suit us all...?

I dunno.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The future has always been uncertain, and it always throws the unexpected at us.

[kribban.livejournal.com]

Okay, wait, feminizing people? What's that supposed to mean? More girl babies being born than boy babies? Or boys growing up to be less masculine? Or less fertile?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

feminizing people? What's that supposed to mean?

What it means, they say, is female characteristics in male animals - they give the example of eggs in the testes instead of sperm. Sounds impossible, doesn't it? In humans it would mean more intersexed people, I would guess; with a general trend towards men having fewer pronounced masculine attributes (like beards, large penis, wide shoulders, hairiness) and exaggerated female characteristics (like breasts). The change would basically be at the hormonal level. I assume being less fertile would go with the territory.

Advent(ure) Calendar: Day 9

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Here's Day 9:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU5gpXE2SfU

Re: Advent(ure) Calendar: Day 9

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link! Wonderful. I'd like more of these Captain Jack docudramas.