Making breakfast

[UDP]

...for my family this morning. It was a lot of fun, because everybody was talking, or I was talking, and it was just a good time. It's funny how simple stuff like that makes you feel useful. I even emptied the dishwasher afterward, all the while talking to everyone. It doesn't even seem like work, really, especially when there are other people there to talk to and the conversation is good.

By the way, have you noticed the difference between generic store eggs and the 'born free' / etc ones? The shells are much tougher in the born free eggs. Also, the born free/naturally fed/etc ones do seem to taste different, perhaps actually sweeter or something? That being said, the jumbo white eggs are cheaper and you do get a lot more food from them. Perhaps related, I also came across a news article from Reuters science that said there really isn't that much nutritional difference between organic foods and regular store stuff.

[Warlord]

It's funny how simple stuff like that makes you feel useful. I even emptied the dishwasher afterward, all the while talking to everyone. It doesn't even seem like work, really, especially when there are other people there to talk to and the conversation is good.

Weirdo

By the way, have you noticed the difference between generic store eggs and the 'born free' / etc ones? The shells are much tougher in the born free eggs. Also, the born free/naturally fed/etc ones do seem to taste different, perhaps actually sweeter or something?

I always buy the cheapest kind, so I haven't. I probably wouldn't notice if there was some difference.

Perhaps related, I also came across a news article from Reuters science that said there really isn't that much nutritional difference between organic foods and regular store stuff.

Probably not, in vedgetables the organic ones seem to be sub-par quality compared to "non-organic" ones.

[UDP]

IDK, really. Local co-ops seem to have good stuff, and it's a little bit more feasible than getting organic bananas from Guatemala, which do indeed vary. I think it depends on the nature of the goods.

Truth be told, however, I generally taste the difference between organic and inorganic. Organic just tastes much more 'fresh'.

[Expat]

Truth be told, however, I generally taste the difference between organic and inorganic. Organic just tastes much more 'fresh'.

So you don't like such a thing as an "inorganic banana"?

I wish the feel-goodery crowd had chosen a different term rather than "organic" - it has made some parts of my job totally impossible.

The only inorganic food humans consume is water and salts.

[Warlord]

I wish the feel-goodery crowd had chosen a different term rather than "organic" - it has made some parts of my job totally impossible.

Yeah the word "organic" sounds really stupid. There's weird word for those products in finnish: "luomu", which is basically the first syllable from the finnish word nature, and a random suffix added to the end. Sort of like in english it could be for example be "natury".

[Warlord]

I generally taste the difference between organic and inorganic. Organic just tastes much more 'fresh'.

I'm not good at telling differences like that. I probably couldn't tell pork from beef, just based on taste

[tiny_dancer]

Aw, that's a bummer. There's nothing like a home-grown tomato. Those pasty, flavorless things in the grocery store just don't cut it.

And I've never liked the fact that you can bend a zucchini like a rubber chicken. Zucchini are not supposed to be flexible.

But I grew up on a farm, so I've been spoiled rotten when it comes to food.

[jewels]

well yeah the "nutritional difference" would be just about none, as it's the same food. The reason people eat organic things is they're made without the harmful hormones, pestisides, antibiotics, etc. It's the same food, just grown in a safer way. So it might not taste any different.

A lot of those pesticides end up inside of the food depending on how it's grown, so you can't just wash it of. Long term eating things that are suppose to kill bugs can be harmful.

Organic food - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, meats, milk, etc. can be full of hormones that can affect you -- they pump them up sorta like steroids to make sure the cows will be bulky and make a good profit. Young girls are actually going through puberty faster and some think it's due to the hormones in milk and meat. It can affect men too.

So it's not that it tastes differently or has different nutrition (it's the same food, exept it's full of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, etc).

It's easier to grow large quanities of food using those chemicals so they can make more profit, but it may be bad for our health.

[Brilliand]

I wish the feel-goodery crowd had chosen a different term rather than "organic" - it has made some parts of my job totally impossible.

What's your job?

[tiny_dancer]

Yeah, industrial egg production is one of the nastiest things I've ever read about. I think the closest thing you can get to pastured is USDA Organic...

EggIndustry.com - Egg Labels

I'm just gonna go buy my own pet chicken. haha I'm sure he and my cat will get along great.

[UDP]

So you don't like such a thing as an "inorganic banana"?

My point is that I taste the difference between when something is grown fresh and not radiated or chock full of preservatives.

tinydancer is probably more in line with what I like. The bananas that are shipped from Guatemala are still a little bit weird sometimes, because they are either often uber green or rotted out from moisture.

Home grown tomatoes, co op produced stuff locally, that seems to be the best consistent deal. But it's also seasonal.

Related, the whole notion of 'buying organic' but with 'a huge carbon footprint' - 'organic foods' from places all over the world.

[Rubicon]

hah weird that you posted this, because I just bought some "cage-free" eggs a few days ago, though I haven't actually tried them yet so can't comment on the taste. their shells are brown instead of white.

according to wikipedia the USDA doesn't have standards for the "free range" or "cage free" labels so I guess I'll have to do more research to make sure I'm buying eggs that actually are free range or cage free.

and about any supposed health benefits, they would just be an added bonus, because I want to start buying free range eggs pretty much just for moral reasons. so unless I turn out to hate the taste of them (which I somehow doubt), I'll continue to buy them as long as I can afford it.

Cage-free is pretty much a joke I think. They're still confined - just all together. And my brother worked in a free-range chicken place for a couple months.. and he said the conditions were just disgusting. Seriously, hearing about it would be enough to turn you off chicken for life. His job was to pick up the chickens and load them into trucks.. and what happened was that they were all corralled into the corner of a shed after which the guys had to pick them up by their legs as quickly as possible - before the chickens started suffocating each other. There were no lights on, and the guys just pretty much grabbed for them, often breaking their legs in the process. He said the guys would often toss the chickens around like footballs, playing games with them. I don't know how he could stand it.

[Danielle]

When I make breakfast (or any meal) for my family, I feel very useful and happy too, but I also feel like I have just won a war or something.

[UDP]

^ Heh, I can imagine that.

[Creepy-Cyclops]

I feel very useful when i'm EATING breakfast.

[Creepy-male]

I feel very useful when i'm EATING breakfast.

Exactly. If you starved to death, that would be one less SLI in the world

[Expat]

What's your job?

I'm a chemical engineer whose job includes trying to communicate technical matters to non-technical folks. It's extremely disheartening when I make a point about all organic compounds being treated in a specific way etc, and someone objecting with "what are you talking about? Organic? That's not natural, so it's not organic!" And then I have to explain that the person has no idea of what "organic compounds" really are, which said person may not be willing to acceopt.

I could use "carbon-based" instead of "organic", but if I use the term "carbon-based" the same kinds of people will start thinking about how evil carbon is etc and totally derail the discussion.

[tiny_dancer]

Yikes. There's the failure of high school science for ya.

[UDP]

Yikes. There's the failure of high school science for ya.

Could also relate to failure of 'Orgo' in college, too.

[Creepy-Diana]

.

[iAnnAu]

I'm a chemical engineer whose job includes trying to communicate technical matters to non-technical folks. It's extremely disheartening when I make a point about all organic compounds being treated in a specific way etc, and someone objecting with "what are you talking about? Organic? That's not natural, so it's not organic!" And then I have to explain that the person has no idea of what "organic compounds" really are, which said person may not be willing to acceopt.

I could use "carbon-based" instead of "organic", but if I use the term "carbon-based" the same kinds of people will start thinking about how evil carbon is etc and totally derail the discussion.

My Mom has a degree in biology, so I knew from ~7yo that organic just meant "containing carbon" - but at the same time, she was very into health food, so she still looked for organic stuff.

I've read quite a bit about how sullied the organic standards are, at least in the US, but I still buy quite a few things organic. First reason is taste: I can tell the difference. Second is pesticides/herbicides/antibiotics/other crap. Third is that I'm just not convinced the multinational corporations have the individual's health in mind when they conduct their GM experiments, and they've meddled congressionally to the effect that food in the US is not labeled as GM.

Each reason is personal, because there are different ways to look at it. Some people can't tell the difference by taste - and, in fact, some of the GM modifications are for taste/texture/visual appeal. When I was trying to eat a raw vegan diet, some of the books I read opined that citrus fruits are far, far sweeter than they used to be, and so our bodies might have difficulty digesting them because they're not "as found in nature."

The sprays/additives matter is also up for debate because even organic farmers use *some* so-called natural pesticides and other things, and some of them can be just as toxic to our systems. I've also read the argument that plants themselves produce natural compounds to fend off pests and diseases, and some of those compounds are just as strong as anything sprayed on their outsides. However, I still think organic cultivation provides less of these compounds. Since I can't afford to buy all my stuff organic, I focus on the year's "The Dirty Dozen" list of highly-sprayed produce (and if you're interested, google "dirty dozen produce").

As for Genetically Modified foods - well, let me just start by saying that yes I understand that all our produce is technically genetically modified because of selective breeding. But companies that splice fish genes into tomatoes to increase their resistance to cold are going a step beyond. While I don't believe every breathless anecdote about the evils of GM, I have seen enough reports to convince me that there are people who have allergic reactions to certain GM foods as if they were other foods, and some countries in Europe have banned GM crops altogether *after* conducting trial growing seasons. I think we will have GM foods in our future, but I seriously disagree with the practice of nondisclosure. This stuff is happening behind closed doors, making the public fucking guinea pigs for all the effects that we can't even predict because our understanding of genetics is not advanced enough.

Well, enough ranting. Please do your own research on the matter, because in some cases organic is just a waste of money, but in other cases it makes a huge difference. And one more opinion: if you can, BUY LOCAL - our habit of shipping foods thousands of miles is a huge waste of resources, and no matter how expedited still compromises the quality of fresh foods at point of sale.

[jewels]

iAnnAu, really enjoyed that post. Interesting. I am now going to google the dirty dozen!