Week Five

Diversification saving Species

Why haven't we learned from the banana or even the potato? I am mystified. Diversification is natural and necessary to ensure survival of various species. But, it's not particularly convenient for shorter term goals, like making money with the least amount of work. So, we find ourselves facing the end of the banana as we know it. Given that it is one of the few non-processed foods on the approved list around my household, I am sad.

I think that part of the reason this is happening is the lack of oversight by an entity other than industry. We would need policy makers to get involved and highlight longer term issues. Self regulation clearly is not working. But, the Department of Agriculture seems like its sole function is to protect antiquated subsidies that are hurting consumers. And, it would take a multinational body to actually deal with theses issues. We need an Al Gore figure to take this one on.

Chicken or the Egg

This seems like another example where science shows us that there's really no precise answer. An egg mutated, and a chicken was born to non-chicken parents. So, I suppose it's the egg. But wasn't it a chicken in the egg for as long as the egg existed? Let's just call it a tie and put this question to rest once and for all...


Eating Broccoli

Yes, I always eat my broccoli. For one thing, broccoli is one of the few vegetables that I can always find organic. In Marin, organic veggies are not as easy to find as you may think. Also, I've been aware for some time about the protective effect of DIM against cancer. But, realisitically, you'd have to eat truckloads of broccoli to get the effect that they've seen in studies where they are working with highly concentrated levels of DIM and IC3. I like broccoli and my kids do too, so we eat a lot of it for that reason!