The OP isn’t really a rant against vegetarians or proponents of organic farming, is it? It’s really more a rant against vegetarians and pro-organic agriculture people who don’t provide good arguments to support their positions on these topics, but who are willing to get pretty rude and confrontational about ideas that they haven’t thought through so well, themselves.
Positions on topics don’t become ridiculous just because the person holding those positions acts like a jerk or a weirdo. They don’t even become ridiculous just because the holder of that position can’t provide a good supporting argument for the position. Positions become absurd when there simply is no strong, logical supporting argument for them.
I don’t identify as a hippie. And I’ve never lived in California. While I get the feeling that some of the hippie claims mentioned in the OP don’t have much basis in reality, some of these ideas might not be total booshwah.
As someone who’s learned a lot more about agricultural ecosystems than she ever intended to, I can say that there are some pretty good reasons to support organic farming. Looking for alternatives to the pesticide treadmill isn’t a bad idea. Maintaining the microbial diversity of soil–something some organic farming techniques seem to promote and heavy synthetic nitrogenous fertilizer use seems to inhibit–is a pretty good thing, too. (I can elaborate on these claims if anyone would like me to.) BTW–organic farming doesn’t preclude the use of pesticides. It simply precludes the use of synthetic pesticides, though the line between “synthetic” and “natural” pesticides is getting blurry very quickly these days.
There are also some pretty good arguments for vegetarianism. On the other hand, there are also some decent arguments for staying omnivorous. And I’m not sure we’re really right to say that omnivory is “the system that worked for the last 10 thousand years.” Hinduism has been around for quite a while now, and it’s very possible to be healthy on an observant Hindu vegetarian diet. For a lot of human history, meat from things you really had to hunt with spears, bows and arrows, etc. accounted for only a small proportion of the total calories and protein ingested by lots of humans. If anything, the “system that worked” for most people in at least some areas of the planet has been relying on food from plant and insect (!) sources for most of the time, with meat from other sources as a rare delicacy, if it was available at all. I’m saying all of this as a non-vegetarian. I eat almost anything that doesn’t run away quick enough.
The “we shouldn’t have farms” idea strikes me as a little out in left field, though. I’d be interested in hearing any good supporting argument for that claim, but I strongly suspect that there isn’t one.
Not really. Prolly cause the ones who look like your average Joe Salaryman, minus the suit, don’t set off your Hipdar. Just like all homosexuals are falaaaaaaming.
Farmers are exactly as nice to their animals as makes most economic sense. Due to the essentially unlimited competition between farmers, and the extremely limited competition between suppliers of farm inputs and processors of farm products (go ahead, look up how many companies are involved in processing chickens), farms operate on razor-thin margins. The Darwinism of the marketplace dictates that any farmer who expends resources on being nice to the animals in ways that don’t contribute to gaining weight/producing milk/eggs/whatever will turn a lower profit than the guy who doesn’t, (i.e., he’ll be deep in the red) and will go under and sell out, leaving only the guys who look only at the bottom line.
Fortunately, in most cases animals are treated reasonably well for the simple reason that stressed animals don’t gain weight at the rate that content animals do. However, there are obviously many corners cut.
As long as we retain a capitalist system, though, it’s not going to stop. There’s no money in being nicer to the animals than is strictly necessary for productive purposes, and there’s no economic room on the farm for imposing unnecessary costs on oneself.
This has to be one of my favorite posts I’ve ever seen.
Great rant Pullet. From what I’ve seen in CA in all the times I’ve been there is that generally west of Sacramento is Hippy Paradise, while almost everything east is much more attractive to those of my ilk.
Now if we can just get those involved with genetically altered agriculture to add a circulatory system to corn. And cucumbers. Man, I loves me some cukes.
That’s homeopathy you’re talking about, which is total arse. However, holistic medicine is a style where the entire person, and their history is considered, rather than symptoms in isolation. It can be practised using standard western medical techniques.
I’m not surprised you’re confused, though, since the “if it’s alternative it must be good” crowd have monopolised the term, and you also find regular herbal treatments labelled as “homeopathic” when they’re not.
Just a damn minute, bud. I used to be a hippy and I was never, under any circumstances, shady. I was always too skinny to provide much shade and no one ever tried to sit in my shadow.
Add Harbor Springs and Petoskey Michigan to the list. Despite the presence of large numbers of gun toting and wealthy right wingers, half the bloody restaurants and small grocery stores tout their “organic” wares and hire only the white and dreadlocked. Two whole towns are starting to smell like Otto, and the idea of having a person who clearly cannot wash his hair preparing my food makes me want to stop eating.
Lovingly extracted from the pits of organically grown bitter almonds, holistic hydrogen cyanide was said by the ancients to cure lumbago, gout, and cancer, by rendering the patient naturally dead. Do you doubt the wisdom we have lost due to the rise of soulless western medicine?
Oh hell, if you’re talking about how anything all natural is good for you, I’ve got a few suggestions: hemlock, foxglove, deadly nightshade, yew. Just ask Agatha Christie!
There’s a Miss Marple novel in which the murder weapon is the water a bunch of flowers was put in. The water leached the natural toxin out of the flowers. If I could remember the species, I would have listed it.
For that matter, I’m pretty sure botulism is all natural, and ergot produces some mighty interesting hallucinations before you die.
