[nizcreare]

A refrigerated case for fresh dog food.

I can't believe people buy this crap for dog's, way too funny, over six dollars for a dog meal, I don't spend that much on myself for lunch.

[Sttim]

Top Ball Warmers!

[CiccoineFed]

Two Street, you'll love this one...

"because he's a dog"
Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Mostly Garbage Dog Food

[Wetekemieluth]

Two Street, you'll love this one...

"because he's a dog"
Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Mostly Garbage Dog Food

That was good.

[illignocearia]

Top Ball Warmers!

I don't know why I don't just get off my ass and make some money by selling stupid crap to rich people, I picked the wrong profession in life.

[averkif]

I don't know why I don't just get off my ass and make some money by selling stupid crap to rich people, I picked the wrong profession in life.

It doesn't even have to be to rich people. You could sell ****e on a plate, esp. if you condition people to think it's the new MUST HAVE. It does help if pets/children are involved, due to the guilt factor. There was a Cabbage Patch Riot at a store in Wilkes-Barre when I was in high school.

[celddiskend]

Natural ingredients?

I was sick of feeding my dog ingredients that don't exist in our plane of existence.

Antimatter kibble. It gives him awful gas but his teeth are so much more healthy!

[exchpaypalgold]

I try to feed myself fresh organic food as much as possible, why shouldn't I be concerned about my dog's health as well? A lot of supermarket dog food is about as healthy as eating at McDonalds.

I think those fresh meals are more a 'special treat', I can't see a lot of people feeding their dogs exclusively on it.

[D6b2v1HA]

Google "raw diet" for dogs. Your head will explode.

I feed high-quality food to my dog because the grocery store stuff is junk. Wheat, corn, gluten, and meat by-products are usually the first ingredients. It's like fast food for dogs. I'd rather spend a little more money on food that is made from real meat and vegetable ingredients (and not that Beneful crap either, it's all gluten) than on vet bills later down the line from a poor diet. And since higher quality foods don't contain fillers, the animal actually needs to eat less of it to get the proper nutrition. I figure it's an investment my dog's health.

[r5YOPDyk]

My terrier has some insane food sensitivities and I've been giving him a salmon-based kibble that's costing me about $35 a month. If you compare the cost of better food to the cost of medical care, perscriptions, and loss of enjoyment due to their feeling uncomfortable, its a pretty clear cut choice.

When you chose to own an animal, you're chosing to take on the responsibility to make sure they are healthy & well fed.

[pheelixoss]

I try to feed myself fresh organic food as much as possible, why shouldn't I be concerned about my dog's health as well?

All food is organic.

Not only is that true, but organic farming is less "sustainable" than regular agriculture and feeds less.

And there is no discernible nutritional difference between "organic" produce and "regular".

Don't take my word for it. Check these articles/podcasts out. He illustrates points far better than I.

Organic Food Myths
Organic vs. Conventional Agriculture
Sustainable Sustainability

My terrier has some insane food sensitivities and I've been giving him a salmon-based kibble that's costing me about $35 a month. That's different. My cat has diabetes and urinary tract problems so I have to feed him a low ash AND a low sugar diet. It's more expensive, but that's what having a pet costs.

Cats and dogs have been living off our scraps for millennia now, I don't think that all of this new "organic" food will make a lick of difference.

What makes me laugh the most is people who decide their cat's going to be a vegan and watch them die of protein deficiency: because millions of years of evolution have fine-tuned the cat's digestive tract to absorb proteins from meat.

[KlaraNovikoffaZ]

Cats and dogs have been living off our scraps for millennia now, I don't think that all of this new "organic" food will make a lick of difference.

True, and humans can survive off potatoes, but it doesn't mean it's the best diet.

What makes me laugh the most is people who decide their cat's going to be a vegan and watch them die of protein deficiency: because millions of years of evolution have fine-tuned the cat's digestive tract to absorb proteins from meat. I know plenty of vegans and I've never known anyone who tried this. Unlike dogs, cats are true carnivores, and you'd have to be a complete idiot to feed them a vegan diet. I laugh when I see ads for cat food boasting that the kibble contains corn (oh wow, so healthy!) and other vegetables. Cats don't need that crap!

[encumeterz]

I know somone who has vegan cats. They're ridiculous.

[nikolapegayyyaasss]

I know somone who has vegan cats. They're ridiculous.

That's insane! In fact, I'd call it animal neglect...

[xpllmr]

True, and humans can survive off potatoes, but it doesn't mean it's the best diet.

Of course not! But a balanced diet based on modern agriculture and a balanced diet based on "organic" methods will leave you in the same state of health and one will be have much less money than the other.

[bestworkothlo]

Sure.

[tigoCeree]

All food is organic.

Not only is that true, but organic farming is less "sustainable" than regular agriculture and feeds less.

And there is no discernible nutritional difference between "organic" produce and "regular".

Don't take my word for it. Check these articles/podcasts out. He illustrates points far better than I.

Organic Food Myths
Organic vs. Conventional Agriculture
Sustainable Sustainability

I only had the time to read thru the first one, "organic food myths" and to me, it seems that he raises several staw-men argument in order to then knock them down.


Let's take these three claimed benefits one at a time.

•Buying organic food benefits small farmers, and represents a blow to the big food corporations.

All right, let's take for granted the position that major food producers deserve to be struck with a blow. I'm sure the starving millions in Africa appreciate the sentiment.
Here, the straw man is the starving African. The fact of the matter is the production of food has nothing to do with distribution of it. The world presently has so much food stockpiled among its various nations that it can feed every single African until the Africans suffer from weight issues. The problem isn't that we don't have enough food to feed everyone, the problem is we don't distribute it well-- partly because big subsidies and big corporations, and other extraneous issues (geopolitics, religion, etc.) get involved in the whole issue.

If anything, U.S. subsidies for the agribusiness has meant that food prices are so low that where possible, American food floods foreign markets at below market rates, thus making African farmers non-competitive.


As such, small farmers can be conventional OR organic growers, just as organic growing is catching on with big corporate farms too. So I don't know that knowledgeable people will make such a simple case as he puts it. I don't know whether there is some monolithic "OrganicMan" giving out orders for organic followers to think one way or another; if there is, I haven't heard of him yet and I try to buy organic when possible.

OTOH, buying organic foods does give competition to the big growers and this marketplace change has made some difference in ensuring that organic farming and that way of life survives and prospers, that's why perhaps it is a grassroots movement...it's another matter that it might already be co-opted by the big corporates.



•Organic foods are healthier to eat.

Did you ever wonder why Chinese drink only hot tea? They boil it to kill the bacteria. Most local Chinese farming uses organic methods, in that the only fertilizers used are human and animal waste: Without being boiled, it's basically a nice cup of E. coli. In the case of China and other poor Asian nations, the reason for organic farming has less to do with ideology and more to do with lack of access to modern farming technology.
Here, he kinda loses it. At least in the U.S. conventional farming has increasingly meant genetically modified crops and organisms (GMO). He brushes off the issue of residue fungicides and insecticides found on foods as something that was taken care of decades ago, whereas the fact is that even now, the population as a whole is suffering from residual chemicals found in pregnant mothers' breast milk and in mens' semen and affecting the newly borns' growth. A whole bunch of peer-reviewed journal articles on this issue can be found at:

FoodRisk.org - Pesticide Residues Exposure Assessment


Humans are at the top of the food chain, so we end up injesting a lot of this "bad" stuff even via other foods such as fish and poultry. And fish kills due to farm runoff have known to happen even in recent times, while there are a whole host of issues of water quality and dissolved oxygen in Cheseapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico-- in the Gulf, for example, near the mouth of Mississippi and around Texas coast, there are several hundreds of square miles of "dead zones" where sea life doesn't survive due to farm runoff in the river waters emptying into the Gulf.


While I don't agree with everything, but one of the comments on that board pretty much sums it up:

Okay, a few problems with your article here. One, organic food is not always genetically the same, since organic food cannot be genetically engineered; however, GMO wheat, corn, soy, and canola dominate the non-organic food supply. I'm talking 80-90% of those crops are genetically engineered. I eat organic mostly to avoid eating genetically engineered food, which is engineered to be resistant to pesticides and herbicides, NOT to be more nutritious. Basically, it is to increase profit. Now, I will gladly pay more for organic food if it means I'm not a lab rat for Monsanto. Whether or not GMO foods are safe is debatable, but there's no shortage of scientists who doubt their safety. We just don't know yet the long-term results. But, I got sick of reading labels and finding HFCS in everything. Organic, I don't have to worry about it.

Secondly, organic crops may yield less per acre, but the crops are generally rotated, keeping the soil better longer. If we stopped the corn subsidies, stopped making it into ethanol and artificial sweeteners just to maximize profit, we wouldn't have to plow down forests for more farmland. We are farming so much corn we actually have to pay these farmers to make any profit.

"Faster" and "less acreage" are okay, you can say that, but "better" and "healthier" are inaccurate. Ever tasted an organic tomato versus one that's engineered to be fatter, meatier, grow faster, keep longer? The first will be flavorful and ripe; the second, totally bland.



•Organic growing methods are better for the environment.

Organic methods require about twice the acreage to produce the same crop, thus directly resulting in the destruction of undeveloped land. During a recent Girl Scout field trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine, California, one of the owners told us his dirty little secret that contradicts what you'll find on his web site. Market conditions compelled them to switch to organic a few years ago, and he absolutely hates it. The per-acre yield has been slashed. Organic farming produces less food, and requires more acreage.
Part of the answer is already covered above. Another part involves explaining the use of "modern technology" in farming which has meant the use of petroleum-based fertilizers to grow unsustainable monocultures which sooner or later succumb to infestation even after using things like RoundUP. Farmers in India that bought BT-Cotton seeds on debt only to see the crop die off also soon committed suicides by the thousands instead of facing Monsanto's debt burden. All in all, yes, "modern farming" has meant a lot more food and lot more productivity of arable land, but it is shown to not be sustainable on the long term basis. India's breadbaket of Punjab is fast becoming a desert because of unsustainable wheat and rice production year in and year out without much of any crop rotation or other techniques applied. Take a look at this one story about Indian cotton farmers:

The Dying Fields ~ Introduction | Wide Angle

[PrettyFifa12]

You'll have to gimme a day or two to absorb your argument. Busy busy with school right now. Not ignoring you though!

[Rategbee]

It's kind of pedantic to say "all food is organic", and I presume you were just saying that to be clever. What I meant was that I chose locally produced fresh products whenever possible, and support agriculture that doesn't rely on antibiotics and harsh chemicals.

[JanetMorris]

Cats and dogs have been living off our scraps for millennia now, I don't think that all of this new "organic" food will make a lick of difference.

Table scraps would be healthier for most dogs than a lot of commercial dog foods.