Conversations with History - Michael Pollan

[futsal1958]

Love Pollan, but it's shocking how he excuses mainstream journalism from covering stories that aren't given the blessing by the Republocrats. He *is* a professor of Journalism, no? Very disappointing.

[satiricon78]

They mention subsidization of food. Whats irritates me is that America is the country that praise and emprise capitalism, but you still subsidize the aquaculture. To dump huge quantities of heavily subsidized corn, actually sold below the cost of production, over the world, thats not laissez-faire capitalism. The capitalistic thought is that if high fructose corn syrup is a good product it can sell itself without subsidizations.

[Jefferdaughter]

Sadly, American has never really practiced true capitalism...

Many of the people of American share your concerns.

[MopDMTBARTL]

The Vatican-Pope-Jesuits-illuminat­i-NAZIS-CFR run the world. they have all the judges, attorneys, doctors, major corporations, etc. all in their back pocket. bought & paid for, etc. our country is no longer free -we live in tyranny! truth an obscure thing, Oppression & lie is the norm. Were all slaves- our masters, the elite, r at least 50 years ahead of us in knowledge, technology, info., secrets & r using all of it against us!

Go here:

truthknowledge. com

Spread it! Time is running out!

[1888junkteam]

excellent work!

[AnonymousCthulhu]

Pollan says that he progressively learns while writing books and that puts him not much far ahead of his readers, making the read not as "daunting" and confusing. This is absolutely true. Pollan has been the only author to write books that I can thoroughly enjoy and read through willingly, not just to finish. I loved the Botany of Desire. :)

[rollinrubber1]

Interesting that an appeal to slow living and a return to traditional ideals is cast in a liberal light, sorry he uses big words, he does write books after all. What is apologetic about him saying that a romanticized view of the past has been helpful in resisting the homogenization of culture and rape of the environment, oh sorry more big words, I forgot only fools talk like this.

[gigiontube]

RE: gofuyose's post

People, animals and vegetation lived on this planet for millions of years, and they were doing just fine, it's how WE came about..from generation to generation. The industrial capitalism brought: cancer, diabetes, MS, ADD and all other degenerative diseases, not to mention the destruction of the environment. There are 1.2 billions pounds of pesticides dumped on our lands every year. What do you think those do to our health and our environment? Get educated!

[BandanaMama]

Jeffer,

It's because the numbers are NOT in balance. The more cattle is raised for meat eaters, the more methane.

[Jefferdaughter]

BandanaMama - balance IS key, isn't it? Natural model agriculture with plants and animals in balance IS sustainable, and will increase the fertility of the earth.

Check the data, and you may be surprised to find that there are no more domestic cattle now than there were buffalo, wild cattle in Europe & Asia, and other ruminants.

Eating buffalo & elk is another option, if done sustainably. Raising cattle & other livestock naturally is another great idea - and is being done by some.

[barundhati]

I really enjoy the conversations. Harry K does a wonderful job of bringing out the guest's ideas....and does a really good home work.

Its really good for exercising your brains...

[Jefferdaughter]

On the methane production of domestic herbavores: Since it is estimated that there were many millions of large herbavores in what is now the US, such as elk and buffalo (American bison) that were replaced by animals such as cattle, how is that contributing significantly to increases in greehnouse gases?

[missnaturalfibers]

I am not able to cite where the data comes from, but I have heard from atleast a couple of places that buffalo and elk actually do not create the same amouth of methane that dairy cows do. Also, all those wild animal populations were grass fed, whereas cattle today is grain fed. An unnatural situation to their gut, but the cultivation of all that grain produces far more greenhouse gas than the natural growth of pastures.

[Jefferdaughter]

missnaturalfibers - Yes, since WWII, most beef cattle are finished on grain. Dairy cows may be fed grains to supplement the protein and/or energy of forage based diets. Most eat corn silage - the entire corn plant fermented, and/or alfalfa forage.

When wild grasses ripen, buffalo eat the seeds: aka grain!

The shift from sustainable ag to chemical-based, industrial ag practices was pushed by petro/chemical corps., and the gov't.

What about wetland methane production?

[missnaturalfibers]

Grain eating is still seasonal at best in free roaming bovines. Autumn is a natural time to bulk up, but otherwise it's unhealthy.

There is a big difference between wild grass and alfalfa and corn as well. Wild grasses make a diverse mix of nutrients and species unlike the monocultures, which is far better for bees as well as herbivores. Monocultures need a horrid amount of pesticides to sustain and make eaters sick.

Beeflots far outnumber natural wetlands, so being concerned is a little daft.