Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The
Farmer’s Market. This is our second post of August, and the second half of a
discussion started earlier this month.
In the last post I talked about terms used in and around agriculture,
which are often misunderstood. The concept of extinction, artificial selection
and genetic viability are often misunderstood because we often put an
impermeable barrier between what we think is natural and what actually is. We
forget that there are varied measures of success when it comes to a given
species and sometimes success means lasting long enough to find another
organism to form symbiosis with. If you’re not feeling like reading the last
article look up the single celled organism known as a Euglena, which can
conduct photosynthesis, and the photosynthesizing sea slug Elysia chlorotica*.As always we start with the main topic at hand
and shift to more local garden related topics after the fact so for this post
we are taking a look at commonly misleading terms in ‘new age’ practices that
simply don’t hold up to any logical scrutiny. Each of the following new age
terms is rated simply by how inaccurate and or intentionally misleading it is
with a reason as to why it is misleading. As with any thing posted here on
LITFM we encourage you to do fair and unbiased research by looking at a variety
of sources and not basing your opinion on one source especially if it is the
internet. Your health has no matching value in dollars and you should weigh all
options before making a final decision. With that said LITFM brings to you the
top New Age fallacies.
5. Ancient Wisdom
The term ancient wisdom itself is generally harmless
when referring to old sayings or maxims such as ‘Nothing to excess’, which
logically is true and helps set the stage for debunking all terms in this list
when misused. We know that humanity rose to its current status relatively
rapidly given how long ago we went from hunter-gathering groups to civilized
nations. The problem in this case is that the term Ancient Wisdom is used as a
selling phrase to get gullible consumers to buy items or services that
otherwise when subjected to any scrutiny would otherwise be questionable at
best. A good case in point of a ancient wisdom can be found in what’s called
Chinese Traditional Medicine today. We know that CTM was invented less than a
century ago with the rise of Chairman Mao’s Communist party in China. This
makes any belief in CTM the result of clever political maneuvering and or
misinformation.
Likewise, it’s known that there are no actual
regulations with any teeth on the manufacture legal of herbal supplements and
or vitamins. So essentially there’s nothing preventing a vitamin company from
filling your calcium pill with a form of calcium that your body can use.
Ironically there is now an advertisement campaign condemning the poaching of
endangered animals for CTM**, and not a single word about how a corporation
like Vitamin Shoppe can get away with selling dishonest product. We know that
not all ancient wisdom was created the same, ancient wisdom gave us the first
medical procedure known (the removal of the burning serpent) and yet also gave
us trepanning (letting the demons out through a hole in the skull) and the
medieval habit of bloodletting the injured or sick. In short humans have a
terrible track record of looking back at terrible ideas with some kind of
disillusioned nostalgia and thinking ‘hmmm in the good old days that worked!’ never minding it didn’t but the
government of course hid the truth and so on. The funniest part of the ancient
medicine racket is this; in the future I guarantee that someone will revive
Radium Water probably spiked with raspberry ketone or something and claim that
it’s a government conspiracy and this mix cures cancer. All while school
children look at the original radium water craze and wonder how we could have
been so stupid and their teacher says “Well they didn’t know any better”. This
is the problem with ‘Ancient Wisdom’ just like with the 8-track and beta max,
just because it’s old does not mean it was wise, so carry a salt shaker in your
back pocket because you may need a grain of salt at any given moment these
days.
4. Conspiracy
I personally find it amusing to rile up conspiracy
theorists. I know that’s cruel but they are perhaps the funniest people in the
universe. For those who don’t know Merriam-Webster defines a conspiracy as the
following;
Conspiracy
(Noun)
1. A secret plan made by two or people to do
something that is harmful or illegal.
2. The act of secretly planning to do something
that is harmful or illegal.
This is a conspiracy in the literal sense implying
something important is going on. Historical examples of conspiracies include
John W. Booth’s assassination of President Lincoln, The Watergate, and the
Thyssen-Krupp scandal which involved funneling money to the Nazis and had a
member of the Bush family involved. The aforementioned are examples of real
conspiracies that did actual harm and once discovered ruined lives, worsened
wars and crushed political careers. However there are some who take it a bit
far and we can look at the anti-vaccine crowd for a great example of a bunch of
people who have gone far beyond rationality. If you’re in the anti-vaccine
crowd then you won’t like what I’m about to say next; you are very stupid
(Shots Fired). I can understand if you don’t want to get the flu vaccine,
honestly I don’t bother either, but that’s because my immune system is ok and
I’ve survived worse things such as West Nile fever and so on. But, when you
knowingly refuse critical vaccines for your children such as whooping cough,
rubella, chicken pox and things that are actually a danger and pose the risk of
mutating in your unprotected kid you are being selfish and criminally
negligent. Vaccines are not a conspiracy, there is no mind control it’s a
concept called Herd immunity. Herd immunity is explained wonderfully by the
Web-comic artist Maki at the link below.
But you know, conspiracy is now being invoked for
sales reasons much like the term ‘ancient wisdom’ because sales organizations
know you might buy more of the product or service at rates (price per unit/ fee
per unit of service) then you might otherwise because a sense of urgency is
implied. This is flatly dishonest and the most visibly gullible crowd to fall
for this are the gun show types. It’s gotten so bad that one annual gunshow in
the Fayetteville region not only plays a version of dixie in their radio
advertisement but always has the announcer say the tagline “Come on down and
get your guns and ammo before they take them away!”. Well wait who is going to
take them away? The fact is all gun control laws have a grandfathering clause
because the government knows it’s damned impossible to go about confiscating as
many guns as are in the USA without a true police state and a heavily entrenched
secret police. The entire purpose of the advertisement is to increase sales by
imparting a sense of dire urgency to an already gullible audience.
As a final thought there is a the chance some of you
out there didn’t read a word of #4 and well Maki again sums all of you up very
well with this web comic: http://www.popsci.com/modest-proposal
Good luck with your tinfoil hats and mud-twig outfits.
3. Natural
The term natural has
been abused by salesmen and corporations so much that it probably could plead
rape in court and win on testimony alone. It is a legally abused term that is
readily skewed every which way by salesmen of varied degrees of ethical
integrity. For the record Merriam-Webster defines the word natural as the
following.
Natural
(Adjective)
1. Existing in nature and not made or caused by
people.
2. Not having any extra substances or chemicals
added.
3. Coming from nature.
4. Not containing anything artificial.
5. Usual or expected.
That is a very clear and complete definition, which
means something like a homegrown head of lettuce, or one grown on a farm with
organic practices would qualify and yet ‘conventionally’ grown foods that have
pesticide or herbicide residues on the plants and additional packaging such as
wax coatings and so on would not because the chemicals in this case did not
actually exist in nature nor did the wax. This also rules out GMO completely
because no GMO could ever have happened in nature naturally. But technically, poison
oak/sumac/ivy, Stinging nettles, Oleander, honey from Rhododendrons &
Azaleas, Daphne, Lenten Rose, Larkspur, Lily of the Valley and a surprising
number of common house plants are all natural and will kill you or put you in
such a state as to wish you died. Additionally any apex predator that can
attack you is also natural and thus lions, tigers, bears (Oh Myy!) and so on
are natural but clearly rather bad for you. The problem with the term natural
is when corporations, lawyers and salesmen get ahold of it because it becomes
something entirely different. This is more about selling product in
corporation’s case (ie big tobacco) they often hide what they really know about
their product. It was noted early on
that cocaine was addictive and yet it was also added to Coca-Cola and retained
until the laws changed. At one point parents took opium drops and gave them to
their children until the laws changed because it was no longer plausibly
deniable that special ingredient in their product was the problem. If you are
still unconvinced that all that is natural is not good for you remember Uranium
is natural and radioactive; likewise, there is a tree called the Stinging Tree
(Dendrocnide moroides); it’s sting is
so agonizing that in severe cases sufferers of contact with this tree attempt
to commit suicide to escape the agonizing pain mere contact with this plant can
cause. As always do your research from several sources ranging from the entire
spectrum of debate and try to come to a fair conclusion.
2. Toxins/Chemicals
Often in new age
culture and a bit on the urban farming scene, the term toxin is said with the
same negative connotation as the word chemicals. The truth is there is no need for such hate,
everything organic is comprised of chemical compounds; even the chemical makeup
of DNA. As noted in #5 the Roman maxim
of ‘Nothing to Excess’ applies to the hate of ‘Toxins’ because anything in a
given system that is in excess becomes a toxin. For instance we cannot breathe
too pure of an atmospheric mix if one of the gaseous aspects is too great. Too
much oxygen or nitrogen is equally problematic, likewise we need water, a
neutral pH liquid chemical/solvent but if we drink too much our blood dilutes
and we may die. More literally, it’s good to have a beer, which is a chemical
cocktail that includes living organisms (yeast) residues of sugar, organic
residues (hops) and whatever else the brewer used, but too much of it and its
chemical solvent (alcohol) can have negative effects. Even bread which is made
by combining organic components, some of which are simple chemicals (sugar,
milk, baking powder) with organic compounds (flour, eggs, flavoring) and a live
organism (yeast which produces alcohol and C02), needs chemical reactions to
make an edible product in which residual chemicals remain.
Basically the point of this part is to point
out that in your life you are surrounded by potential toxins and chemicals
everywhere you go and most of them are incredibly harmless or inert. It is
never wise to lump something like them in with things that are actually
dangerous like fertilizer runoff, DDT, Malathion, Dioxin, Gyphosphate
(roundup/Agent Orange), chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) and, polychlorinated
biphenyl (PCBs) because this is both unfair and inaccurate. Consider carefully that
if the person you are talking to chemicals or toxins cannot define what chemicals
or toxins he or she is talking about in detail and provide meaningful amounts
of exposure in the form of parts per million, you are probably getting sold
some bad information and need to whip out that salt shaker.
1. Energy
Energy has been the most misused scientific
term in the last century and in the current though the term quantum is rapidly
closing in on the title. Merriam – Webster’s dictionary defines energy as the
following.
Energy (Noun)
1. The ability to be active
2. the physical or mental strength that
allows you to do things
3. Natural enthusiasm and effort
4. Usable power that comes from heat,
electricity, etc.
If you notice there is no mention of all of what most of the new-age
holistic gurus are claiming in the definition. Energy isn’t some random ambient
wave that your pretty little tinfoil hat, acupuncture, or dowsing rod can magically
tap into. Energy is actually scientifically defined as the ability to do work.
Objects can have energy by virtue of their motion or kinetic energy, by the
virtue of their mass (Einstein’s special relativity) or its given position or
potential energy. This object could be you, the cells you are made of,
bacteria, animals the planet you are on or just a boulder at the top of a hill that’s
ready to become a literal rolling stone. When people seek alternative treatment
that uses energy such as say ‘Orgone’, ‘Reiki’ both of which on any real
examination even without science do not hold up to any scrutiny much like the
old practice of bloodletting, trepanning or determining who is a witch via
torture and drowning/burning at the stake. Consider this; if say reiki, orgone,
or chakras actually worked reliably enough to be validated, why aren’t they
putting modern medicine out of business? The simple answer is that they have
not because they do not work reliably enough to do so and in the rare instances
where they do work a little thing called the ‘Placebo Effect’ is what is really
working.
The Placebo Effect is
when a patient has a beneficial effect in their health which is produced due to
a placebo drug or treatment that cannot be attributed to the effects of the
placebo itself, and thus must be due only to the patients belief in that
treatment. There was a study in Australia**** and numerous resulting paper
articles ***** that handle the subject. The fact is that no one worth their
salt who is professionally ethical takes this stuff seriously. So when you hear
about someone aligning energies or what have you, if you want to believe that’s
fine but carefully consider the source, do as much detailed research as you
can. Should you have a serious condition that could be life threatening, it
comes down to you on what treatment you
take but always consider if the caregiver has your best interests at heart or
if they are simply trying to make you into an income source. There are scam
artists and frauds in every profession, especially those with no oversight, and
as P.T. Barnum once put it, ‘there is a sucker born every minute.’ And if you don’t
believe, ask all the people who fell for Ponzi schemes, Enron and religious cults
other such clearly fraudulent situations.
As a final note to the abuse of the term energy, if
you recall I mentioned that Quantum was also being abused. The term quantum
scientifically tends to mean ‘small’ so quantum mechanics are the small
mechanics of the galaxy the higgs-bosun particles and so forth that help
explain what we’ve not detected or interactions we don’t quite understand. Much
like energy, the term quantum is abused by certain holistic personalities in
context of it being able to help you directly when in fact there is no way it would
matter to you on any real scale. As with
my comments on energy and how realistically holistic healing in all its forms
is a giant placebo effect and energy has nothing to do with, quantum anything
will do virtually nothing for you no matter what you do unless you make your
bad habits very quantum.
But enough of the heavy stuff, here are some images from the test gardens.
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| Pesto Purpetuo Basil in bloom! |
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| Portulaca grandiflora 'Red Grunner' - Salad Purselane |
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| Portulaca grandiflora ' Peppermint' - Fancy Moss Rose |
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| Pea blossoms on feild peas. |
I included this because even field peas have pretty blooms as they produce food and enrich the soil no less.
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| Chicorum intybus - Radicchio |
That's right folks this is some of fall 2015's crop of radicchio which means that it's that time of the year for cold-season veggies. Starting with Labor Day Weekend on in addition to sparklitis inducing aloes expect to see Dinosaur Kale, Radicchio, Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce and other cold season favorites.
* Photosynthesizing sea slug
info: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/sea-slug-steals-photosynthesis-genes-its-algae-meal
**Chinese Traditional Medicine: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/10/traditional_chinese_medicine_origins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.html
*** ThyssenKrupp Scandal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324339204578173220926745606
**** Australian Studies
***** Placebo effect articles
about Australian study
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