Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

bit of a simplistic view chappo. while i agree in principle its not the way it works in real life.

its the same reasoning AFAIK for thinks like import tarrifs and other examples. buy australian is a nice theme, but if you dont force the issue with legislation then people are going to go for the cheaper option.

pick any example, given the choice the consumer will most like choose the crap item. Its the reason there is talk of the "fat tax" on certain processed foods. you'd think the big lump of grey matter in their head would help, but no.

I'm not for total government control, but god help the population if they were left to their own devices led by the nose by the advertising companies......

GMO is going to be one of the great plagues of the 21st century,and i fear that its going to be a Pandora's box. to play with something which has that many "vectors" completely outside our control is madness.

people have been programmed to think that carrots are orange and straight, and any divergence from this is wrong. if they are told that this is how a tommy should look then they'll buy that one, especially if its cheaper.

i defer to JP's signature on this one...........unfortunately the incidence of ignorant people make rules and regulations unnecessary.................

Don't completely agree with you there Chappo.... the thick skinned tomato was partly produced as Angie said....to be picked my machine.. so it wouldn't bruise...

But mainly because the big supermarket chains demanded it... partly because consumers tended to squeeze them (because they were green), and they'd end up with a large amount of damaged product....

For a while all you could get was green, tasteless "tomatoes".... and consumers ultimately voted with their feet and stopped buying them.... like me, other than mid winter when I can't grow my own I wouldn't buy a supermarket tomato... and just stopped when they got to the green stage...



Exactly... people started buying them because they had colour, taste and would ripen on the truss over time....

The other factor though is this....

Previously the majority of tomatoes were still grown in soil based hothouses or large market garden setups and harvested mechanically...

Now almost 90% are grown hydroponically... and are the "Flavourite" truss variety... each truss is hand cut....

Developed specifically due to consumer market research... yep consumers do have the power... of voice and wallet... pity we don't use it more often...

P.S .... Some of the hydro operations supplying tomatos are huge.... bigger than most of the car assembly plants..... a couple even have electric motorised carts to get around inside they're that big.... seriously...

Steve ,, i like to try to keep things simple ,, it keeps the discussion more rudimentry.

The vast majority of approved GMO products , are simply a fast track of what can be done ( and has been done) buy cross-pollination, and selection ....., these would seem to be , in my opinion, a relative safe option.

I think you under estimate the thinking power of the average consumer ,, YES they want a cheap price ,, but if they buy a tastless tomato 3 times ,, it WILL dawn on them that the product is defective. Now comes in the choice option ,, the consumer knows the cheap product tasted BAD ..... they look for alternatives. If the aternative tasty / product is not beyond their houshold means ,, then yes they will try it.then they get the flavour and like it ,, and continue to buy it ,, the supplier now has bigger orders , so can reduce the price.
No need for government regulation.
There will be the ignorant few who will not follow the normal guideline of human nature ,, but as history has showed ,, the smartest survive.

You think GMO tomatoes are an issue- I have an even better one for you- no more squinting to see your fish!!!!

http://www.time.com/time/2003/inventions/invfish.html

In all honesty, I am a lover of science- passionate in fact- but right now it scares the crap out of me. Because I closely follow scientific circles, I know what scientists and geneticists have been doing- scaffolding to rebuild lost fingers great! but genetically breeding pigs for hemoglobin (human blood) is not. Yes, the scientists are breeding pigs with human blood in them so they can be used not only for blood donations but they are being studied more for harvesting organs, especially the heart, liver and kidney.
Read about the Spanish Flu which killed something like 20 to 100 million people over a course of few years, they aren't even sure how many died- they traced the origins of that pandemic flu disease outbreak and it's the same MO as all the other flu pandemics we get- you put poultry, which carry the avian flu virus, next to pigs and the virus crosses over to them, then it mutates in the pigs to become contagious to humans. Pigs are the vector when it comes to avian flu viruses- there have been very few cross contaminations directly from bird to man. Birds usually die from the virus but not always but pigs don't. Worse case senerio- a human with pig body parts, infected with avian flu, spreading the disease without any knowledge- a typhoid Mary in modern times and a disease outbreak of horendous proportions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_influenza

I fear that scientists in their zeal will create something catestrophic that can't be undone- something that shouldn't have been created in the first place, like the creation of the atomic bomb.

So eat your good healthy AP veggies and fish so you will be healthy enough to survive the pandemic avian pig flu and re-populate the earth!

I want glow in the dark fish

http://www.glofish.com/images/glofish_037.jpg (large image)



Enjoy,

Ron

keep your glow-fish ,, I want to re-populate the Earth

Shit, not with chappo's

Mate all my kids are great ,, my genetics are wonderful ,, it's just the" ME" thats the problem.

Buckle up for a bumpy ride- food prices are expected to skyrocket as a lot of the corn crop has been hit hard with heavy rains. Last year, 20% of our corn went to ethanol; it's suppose to be close to 30%, I believe, this year. I don't see that number declining when oil prices are at record levels. Now, with less crop in the field and potentially even greater chances of the crop producing even less than expected, with even more rain expected, there won't be much left for corn flakes, hog and cattle fattening and soda sweetener, let alone everything else. Not to mention what this will do globally.

http://rss.wn.com/English/related-artic ... s_decline/

Wonder what would grow well in AP, that makes oil....

OBO algee