Thankyou,

I love NZ lamb, and if I were buying supermarket lamb, I would choose NZ lamb (generally grass-fed) over US lamb any day (generally grain-fed and lacking in flavor). But I’d rather my lamb purchase dollars go to the nice couple with the small “hobby farm” in my county.

Same for my produce dollars. I buy direct (CSA) from a small family produce farm in my county, instead of the huge corporations in the Central Valley in CA, Oregon, Washington state, or outside the country. We are losing farms at an alarming rate in my county. I don’t want that to happen.

And even with products I use that have to originate from some distance, like coffee, I often buy locally roasted versions. It’s fresher and supports a local business.

I guess I’ve become jaded. I figure by the time something scientific has become mainstream to the point that I see it in several TV ads in an evening, there is a good chance the theory has less the realm of hard science and debate has become part of the cultural meme. I don’t think it is possible to seriously research it and get a different conclusion now – too many people just accept global warming as fact.

Now days, global warming seems to be a major selling point, from personal consumer items to major oil companies, and that always puts my skeptic antenna up. And seeing how scientific funding and a voice can dry up for the losing argument in “consensus science” (as in the heart-lipid theory), I can’t help but imagine that could be happening with the global warming issues.

But like Migraineur said, the oil is going to run out. There are lots of good reasons to conserve and change habits. We have polluted the earth and our bodies with all sorts of nasty compounds, and a reduction of pollution, for whatever reason, is a good thing.

Marc

Those from Europe contain huge variations in mineral content. Most of the waters from North America are no different than the water from my tap (Toronto). But the ones from Europe can be extremely high in Magnesium (heart attack prevention), Potassium (diuretic function), Low Sodium, very high Calcium Carbonate (bone health)…. some German waters are extraordinarily high in Sodium.

Some waters also contain a high level of Lithium for the bipolars among us. I haven’t seen any of these (two, actually) waters imported.

By comparison, North American waters are hardly worthy of bottling. Bottled for health purposes, at any rate. It’s weird that North Americans believe that the less minerals in a given water the better it is. Purity: Puritanical? Studies of sudden death from myocardial infarction indicate that chronic consumption of high magnesium waters significantly decrease the incidence of MI deaths.

Those of use who live in cities with filtered chlorinated water are relatively safe. Usually we are not in danger of drinking coliforms, enterococci, cholera vibrio or any of the myriad and fascinating waterborne infectious organisms. But a whole whack of humans live in places where there is a reliance upon well water. There are houses in big North American cities that have been ‘grandfathered’ to well systems. Not all of this well water is free of coliform and other bacteria. Drinking bottled water, under those circumstances, is probably a good idea regardless of the environmentally negative impact of plastic bottles. There are 5 gallon deposit/return bottles available.

Anyway, when is anyone going to help me out in re: heart disease and death from heart attack in North America during the 1940s, 50s and 60s? Why was this happening? There was more organic farming going on in those days than now. Where were those people going wrong?

That was my main point in the above comment – you said it better.

And as long as we’re ranting, I hate getting home from the Natural Food store only to find that the overpakaged $8 organic blueberries are still moldy underneath and the organic nectarines are kind of brownish inside.