btw.net Weblog

Does 'Organic' Really Mean?

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:19:26 GMT

news article: What Does 'Organic' Really Mean?
(New York Times, 07/29/06)

read it

what I found interesting was this quote

WHICH foods are worth the higher price? According to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organic research organization, the so-called dirty dozen -- apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach and strawberries -- tend to have a high pesticide residue, even when washed. These are worth buying organic, as is baby food, which tends to be made from condensed fruits and vegetables.

Likewise, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products that carry an organic label are free of pesticides, synthetic growth hormones and antibiotics. If a manufacturer does not use the term organic, but says the product is "hormone free" or "does not contain antibiotics," "those claims are somewhat meaningful," Ms. Rangan said.

and these links

Environmental Working Group

Consumer Reports' Greener Choices

Consumers Union Guide to Environmental Labels

for example:
USDA Makes Changes in Organic Program Based on 2005 Court Ruling and Congressional Amendment to Organic Law -- Need to Close Loopholes

Last November, over 300,000 letters from people like you were sent to Congress opposing an amendment to weaken organic standards. Despite our hard work and a massive effort by organic farmers, food companies and consumers, a late-night conference committee maneuver resulted in passage of a bad amendment!

The amendment was inserted into the FY06 Agricultural Appropriations Bill and passed. A number of Congressional representatives made statements condemning both the undemocratic process and substance of this change to the organic law.

The USDA is proposing to amend the National Organic Program regulations to reflect the legislative changes made in Congress. The public comment period is only open until May 12, 2006. But the proposal leaves loopholes that could allow:

dairy animals that could have been treated with antibiotics, animal byproducts and hormones to be converted to organic production; and
numerous artificial (synthetic) substances, including over 500 food contact substances, to be used in organic processed foods without review and approval by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) and public input.

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 03:12:58 GMT

Warming Pacific Hurts Food Chain. A scarcity of krill in warmer waters near Pacific seabird breeding grounds means some species won't have enough food for chicks. Scientists expect severe population declines, which will mean other species up the food chain will go hungry. [Wired News: Top Stories]

surplus

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:10:13 GMT

From Business Week, July 31, 2006

Iran's annual oil and gas revenues:     $60.000 billion
annual aid contribution to Hezbollah: $   .180 billion
annual aid contribution to Hamas:    $   .040 billion

and from Business Week, July 31, 2006
Russia's government owned Gazprom gas company:

annual revenue: $60.000 billion

Some customers and their reliance on Gazprom:

Finland:            100%
Latvia:              100%
Lithuania:         100%
Slovkia:            100%
Greece:         87%
Czech Republic:    81%
Austria:             73%
Turkey:               66%

A Revolution in Wealth, by the Tofflers
What most business, political and civil leaders have not yet clearly understood
is a simple fact: An advanced economy needs an advanced society.
For every economy is a product of the society in which it is embedded
and is dependent on its key institutions.

(chapter 5)

in another place in the book, they mention the concept of: surplus complexity.
more on that later.

I've been quiet for a time

Mon, 08 May 2006 03:52:41 GMT

Busy.
But also noodling on how to move my worries into a constructive, positive effort to help define and resolve some of the social issues before us all.

It is easy to find the issues of our impaired environment and our foot dragging on coming to grips with how health care will inevitably become our largest economic and ethical issue. It is easy to turn to black humor about which wil kill us - global warming, a mutated virus plague, the complexity of heath care choice or the race to spend our way to "ethical" health care.

But what is a constructive, positive effort?
Is there one?

Yes.

We will make heart rending choices.
The eagle will disappear. As will the bear - polar as well as black. The oceans fester. The global dimming will either save us from global warming (yet we die of famine) or it doesn't and we find out whether Al Gore's vision is gloomy enough. We come to live on corn rather than oil.

And we learn to make these heart rending choices with deliberate practice.

A Star Is Made
Freakonomics
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT
Published: The New York Times on May 7, 2006

...And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task [~] playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.

Their work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers [~] whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming [~] are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.

Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love [~] because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't "good" at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.

The trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated
expert performers are nearly always made, not born
practice does make perfect
when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love
because if you don't love it,
you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good.

To Build The Life You Want, Create The Work You Love

Gradually I realized that, despite obstacles, such plucky souls possessed a mode of thinking and working that let them live the traditional [base "]American dream" (even though some of the letters came from Asia, Canada, Australia, and Europe). They had built their lives on the solid ground of genuine interests, meanings, and values. They demonstrated old-fashioned virtues: thrift; hard work; pride of workmanship; love of service and community; seemed to work for something larger than self. They committed themselves to and invested in their talents. They seemed to work for something larger than self.... The main premise of this book is that authentic occupational success is tied to healthy human development and that its seminal demand is spiritual growth - our cultivation of those inner gifts and forces that renew and animate our creative energies[sigma].

We live in a lesson-world: Its problems can help us grow. Our desire to have someone else give us work, define our life[base ']s role, or tell us when and how to do things is an avoidance of the highest order [^] a obvious shirking of mature responsibility. Every generation has its share of hardships to surmount: One of our era[base ']s assignments is to manage tumultuous change. Another is to cultivate the highest self-awareness that transcends the idea that our good [^] and [base "]the good life[per thou] [^] comes from without. I propose a radical, yet ancient, notion: To build the life you want [^] complete with inner satisfaction, personal meaning and rewards [^] create the work you love. By this I mean invent a way to earn an income doing what you do best, while serving others, becoming authentic, fulfilling the highest standards of your vocation. This is spiritual work. It[base ']s life[base ']s assignment. And most of us are well-equipped to do it.

from Introduction,
Marsha Sinetarpyright @ 1995,
St. Martin's Griffin ~ New York,
ISBN 0-312-14141-6

So the question is
what do we love enough to save ourselves?
(no, not one thing we all do
thousands of things that we all do part of)

Oddly enough, I have a story that might help jump start this "conversation."
more later....

Who Will Pay? Coping with Aging Societies, Climate Change, and OtherLong-Term Fiscal Challenges:

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 02:41:45 GMT

Bradford Delong writes Notes: Long-Term Budgeting

Yet another book to add to the must-read-soon pile:

Which links to an Economist article, In the long run we are all broke, How to stop governments going bust.

...Most countries' explicit net debt - issued as bonds and traded every day in financial markets - is at manageable levels, relative to GDP. However, embodied in current tax and expenditure policies are a lot of obligations for which governments have not yet had to make explicit provision. This implicit liability arises mainly from future increases in spending on pensions and health care. Include it, and total debt vaults to levels last seen (for explicit debt) in wartime. Governments often fall into bad habits when their debts are so high, usually by resorting to the printing press and using inflation to cut the real value of their liabilities....

So what is to be done? First, governments must look much farther ahead than they do now. An increasing number of western countries are planning their public finances on a basis of three to five years, but this is nowhere near enough, argues Mr Heller. They need to incorporate a long-range perspective (of at least 25 years and preferably more) into their budgets. Second, these projections should be vetted by independent agencies such as America's Congressional Budget Office, because of governments' tendency to see the silver lining and not the cloud....

That links to an IMF publication, Who Will Pay? Coping with Aging Societies, Climate Change, and Other Long-Term Fiscal Challenges:

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 02:27:48 GMT

Universities: A marriage of convenience. Technology alliances are proliferating in higher education, where companies sponsor research that advances their agendas, and concerns over conflicts of interest give way to pragmatism. [CNET News.com - Front Door]

Corporate classrooms. Is tech industry a savior or danger to education? [CNET News.com - Front Door]

The consumer defines value, producers provide choice. II

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 02:06:40 GMT

SJ Mercury: Adding style to substance. It used to be that only high-end companies such as Apple Computer or Sony cared about industrial design -- the distinctive look and feel of their products. But in an age when hardware has become a commodity, many more tech companies are coming to realize that aesthetics matter. [Tomalak's Realm]

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 12:34:55 GMT

As Uses Grow, Tiny Materials' Safety Is Hard to Pin Down. Investors and policy makers are finding that pinpointing the potential environmental and health impacts of nanotechnology could take years. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Technology]

Name That Cancer in One Molecule. Intel and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center collaborate to develop a nanotechnology that, if it works, will be the most senstive cancer diagnostic tool ever invented. By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News]