Guy, I also thought the article was silly. It reminds me of the quote by Mark
Twain that says something about how science can get so much mileage out of
such a trivial amount of fact (I forget the exact quote).
The title of the article is "Do health benefits explain the price premiums for
organic foods?" But the article assumes that health benefits are limited to risk
reduction, and it focuses on cancer risk reduction. From the abstract: "...we
focus on risks that can be quantitatively estimated, measuring the probability of
an adverse health outcome with readily accessible data. Currently, only cancer
risks can be measured in terms of probablities from readily acessible data."
Are the health benefits of foods synonymous with avoiding risks of getting sick
or dying? Can foods possess qualities, based on how they are grown, that can
contribute to good health? Is western science up to addressing these
questions? Certainly many ancient (and current) cultures put a lot of emphasis
on how food is grown and prepared. The Chinese system of health and
medicine holds chi energy as essential to good health, and chi must be
present in food--which is a function of how food is grown, handled and prepared.
In the vedic system of India, that same life force is called "prana," and likewise
is present in greater or lesser amounts in food.
Modern western materialist science has discarded this notion of "vitality." It no
longer fits into the current paradigm of science (I open myself to potential
ridicule to bring it up). Part of the reason we have discarded it is that we don't
know how to measure it--although some biodynamic practitioners are working
at it.
The article comes to the conclusion that "there must be a large difference
between the typical organic consumer and the hypothetical consumer who
assesses risks as risk assessors do." Although the article implies that
organic consumers are operating out of delusion, one could as well conclude
that the risk assessors are operating out of seclusion.
Francis Thicke
>
> Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 16:19:20 -0600
> From: "Guy Ames" <guya@ncatark.uark.edu>
> Subject: RE: the price of a life (was organic does pay off)
>
> Maybe you're right, Craig. I dunno. I went back and looked at it
> again, and I swear I can't glean any more from it than before.
> Perhaps it's my own intellectual limitations, but maybe that brings
> up an important related issue--the form of scientific publications as they
> appear in refereed journals. I'd be willing to bet that the physicists
> that publish in their journals couldn't understand half of what was
> published in a medical journal, and medical doctors probably couldn't
> understand half of what is published in ag journals, ad infinitum. I know
> I'm just pipe dreaming here, but wouldn't it be great if each scientific
> article was accompanied by a translation of the abstract for laymen.
> Something like: "The upshot of this research is organic consumers don't
> know their risk from a hole in the ground." Thank goodness for Science
> News and Discover magazines and their ilk for interpreting much of
> scientific writing (even Darwin had his Huxley).
>
> It's largely the form of such published research that led to the
> humor that spawned the Annals of Improbable Research, a publication
> run by, for, over, and beyond scientists in all disciplines.
> Remember, for instance, the now famous and ACTUAL title from the
> respected journal Nature: "The Clutch Size of the Great Tit," an
> article about the number of eggs in the nest of a certain avian
> species. Serious research that would have sent Bevis and Butthead
> into convulsions.
>
> Anyway, I'm embarrassed by the ridicule I used in my original post on this
> subject, and I'd like to apologize to the authors. I'ze just tryin' to
> have a little fun! :-) Anyway, maybe if a few SANnetters go to the AIR
> site I posted earlier they'll understand where I'm coming from and forgive
> me.
>
>
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