Do you worry now and then about what all the pesticides and sprays of one sort or another are doing to the food we eat, and thus to our insides? And maybe having consequences on the health of future generations? There has just recently been more than a little tremor over the news reports that maize modified with the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis can kill the caterpillars of the threatened Monarch butterfly. According to the Washington Post, the Monarch is not just any butterfly, it is "the Bambi of insects". And in America between 10 million and 20 million acres are already growing BT maize. And if a species of butterfly is affected, what about other insects and so on down the chain? If you're a worrier, nothing will stop you, but most of us, while always suspecting that the chemical giants usually win, are not going to bother too much as long as the food we buy looks good and tastes good. Yet against this current, organic farming is now naturally and increasingly catching the fancy of the public. Are you one of those who never eats a pear or an apple without peeling it, because you have heard that they are many times sprayed so that they will look whole and wholesome, without the blotches apples of old so often had? But you can't peel cherries or raspberries.
A woman recently told in a magazine how she had learned about apples. In her childhood the family laid theirs in the upper floor of the barn to store them through the winter. One day a squirrel squeezed through a warped board in the door, came out, sat down and peeled the apple before eating it. She reckoned that what was right for the squirrel was right for her, and peeled her apples since. Well, a family which did the same in its barn, didn't spray and didn't peel. It takes all types. It would be awful to feel fear with every bit of food you take.
But you can go to the other extreme. A recent letter to the English Field: "It seems that several thousand scientists, professors, inspectors and researchers are involved in the investigation of the lethal contents of today's diet. The cloned potato and a new disease "vegetatis" is threatening us all. In Africa over 70 years ago, I lived on biltong, crocodile, iguana, tea and biscuits for six months. I shall be 98 this year." Full name and address given. If you want to carp, you can say "ah, but for six months only." Biltong, remember is strips of meat dried in the sun.