All Entries Tagged With: "Agriculture"
They Still Sing
by Einar Du Rietz About 50 years ago, the book Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson was published, and triggered an environmental debate that has been going on since then. Lot’s of articles are written about this these days, and, Cato Institute, among others, has published an essay collection. Carson passed away in 1964, and I [...]
What’s That Buzz
by Einar Du Rietz You might remember the Back-to-Nature movement of the 70′s. That was a rather harmless way for people, longing for the genuine way of living, to move into the countryside to enjoy the splendor of bad, or no, plumbing. Fine with me. A general observation is that most of these people eventually [...]
Happy Earth Day Humans
by Einar Du Rietz Only weeks after the peculiar, entirely symbolical and possibly dangerous Earth Hour gimmick, it’s now the 42′nd Earth Day. Hard to be against the Earth, but I’ve never understood the tendency to use these events to suggest an ongoing conflict between the earth and humanity. CFACT International President David Rothbard comments: “Celebrate them [...]
They Don’t Want To Hurt You – They Just Want Your Money
by Einar Du Rietz The heroic boy scouts collected money, went to a village in deepest Africa and helped develop a well. A few month later, excessive use had dried it up and the final result was an extension of the desert. Examples of unintended consequences (and sometimes plain stupidity) in development aid are numerous, some [...]
No More Butter on the Fish
by Einar Du Rietz Yesterday, I watched that widely acclaimed movie by Nora Ephron about Julia Childs and her later follower. Marvelous. And somehow, all about butter. I seldom use butter, as I prefere olive oil, but for certain dishes it’s the best option. All sorts of fish, for example. How interesting then that there is [...]
The New Antidote – Garlic
by Einar Du Rietz That it was fairly good for preventing colds I knew, but now apparently garlic is the way to prevent global warming. Reports euractiv: “Reducing farm animals’ wind by adding garlic to feed could substantially reduce greenhouse emissions, according to research by West Wales’ scientists featured by Euronews. An organosulphur compound obtained [...]
Making good science decisions
We live in a world where the leaders of African nations prefer to let their citizens starve to death rather than import genetically-modified food grains DENNIS AVERY I can’t help but praise Michael Specter’s new book: Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. Specter warns that we live [...]
A Matter of Taste
by Einar Du Rietz After being approved by the national governments in the EU, Thrombin has now found it’s way into the parliament, by way of the environmental committee, which – not surprisingly – found a majority for proposing a ban. Thrombin is also, more popularly, known as “Meat Glue”, creating connotations that set off a lot [...]
The Solar Cycle, Climate, Carbon and Crop Yields: EIKE Berlin
On April 17th and 18th members of the European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) gathered at Humboldt University in Berlin for their annual meeting and to discuss the latest developments in climate research and policy. Participants agreed that the current climate debate serves the interests of energy companies and the makers of solar panel [...]
Still Feeding the World
The great Norman Borlaug Died September 12, 2009 By PAUL DRIESSEN (Washington) Norman Borlaug just turned 94 – and is still going strong During the “Eat This” segment of their docu-comedy series BS, Penn Jillette beat Teller in a round of their “Greatest Person in History” card game. Penn needed just one card: Norman Borlaug. [...]
The Truth About Organic Foods
CFACT is proud to offer its German translation of Alex A. Avery’s The Truth About Organic Foods Two years ago, the the most talked about book on organic foods in over a decade was issued in English – now, with the support of CFACT Europe, it is available to the 100 Million or so German speaking [...]
Potatoes to Diapers
Transgenic Potatoes Yield Sustainable Diapers HOLGER THUSS (Jena) A simple way to kill small talk (or exit a Christmas card list) is to declare that you’ll serve your guests genetically modified food and then explain your affection for biotechnologists work with transgenic plants. Many have heard that “dangerous” “gm” crops will allow killer tomatoes to [...]
