I'm going to miss my backyard tomatoes. I've started covering the cherry tomatoes on the patio. If it stays reasonably mild I've found I can get tomatoes into early November. Last year I think it was late November, but this year I don't think it will be as good. I just need to remember to fill the reservoir (they're in one of those pots that holds 5 or 7 L of water in the bottom).

Hah, I heard a program recently that discussed a new book on tomatoes and it was said that the most popular tomatoes, the tomatoes we find in grocery stores, are mostly based on one strain that received a genetic mutation allowing them to redden by the time they hit stores... and they're one of the worst tasting tomatoes out there; however the best tasting tomatoes don't look as great or last as long on shelves, so regular people think of tomatoes as the 'bad tomatoes'.

It's also a gross over-simplification.

A wikipedia article on DDT states the book "questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human health". That seems ridiculously sensible and intelligent.

The book has also been credited with being one of the catalysts of the modern environmental movement that inspired various terrorist groups like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.

I'd never read this book, or heard of it... how did she cost millions of people their lives?

In September 1962 – 50 years ago this month – a book was published which changed the way we looked at the post-World War Two chemical revolution. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring – a clarion call about the perils of pesticides – is largely credited with launching the modern day environmental movement. [...] Ehrlich thinks Rachel Carson would be appalled by our lack of progress in stemming the flow of toxic chemicals into our air, water, food and bodies.

It is a sure sign of the decline of our civilization when PR alone is able to convince people to pay more for lower quality food, and feel superior for it.

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In fact, the Stanford study — actually a meta-study, an analysis of more than 200 existing studies — does say that "consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria."

[...]

How can something that reduces your exposure to pesticides and antibiotic-resistant bacteria not be “more nutritious” than food that doesn't?

[...] the study narrowly defines “nutritious” as containing more vitamins. Dr. Dena Bravata, the study’s senior author, conceded that there are other reasons why people opt for organic (the aforementioned pesticides and bacteria chief among them) but said that if the decision between buying organic or conventional food were based on nutrients, “there is not robust evidence to choose one or the other.” By which standard you can claim that, based on nutrients, Frosted Flakes are a better choice than an apple.

But they’re not. And overlooking these key factors allows the authors to imply that there isn’t “robust” evidence to choose organic food over conventional. (Which for many people there is.) Under the convenient cover of helping consumers make informed choices, the study constructed a set of criteria that would easily allow them to cut “organic” down to size.

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That the authors of the study chose to focus on a trivial aspect of the organic versus conventional comparison is regrettable. That they published a study that would so obviously be construed as a blanket knock against organic agriculture is willfully misleading and dangerous. That so many leading news agencies fall for this stuff is scary.

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The researchers did find, however, that organic milk and chicken contained higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a healthy fat also found in fish that can reduce the risk of heart disease. Organic produce also contained more total phenols than conventional varieties; phenols include flavonoids that work as antioxidants to fight genetic damage that can lead to cancer and even some neurological disorders like Parkinson’s. But these nutritional differences were small, and the researchers were reluctant to make much of them until further studies confirm the trends.

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Some of the studies found that children eating organic produce had lower levels of pesticide residue in their urine than those consuming conventional produce, but the numbers were too small to draw any general conclusions.

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Whoever was involved editing then posting those pictures should be fired on the spot IMO.

Their Line of Credit is an obvious rip off. So is their web site, with no prices listed. And they ask you to give up your SIN for a credit check. Obvious traps. But I haven't seen an MDG ad in print or on TV for years.

.... and washed them with tap water and lightly scrubbed them with my hands before cutting them up and eating them. Is that good enough?

Sometimes I think CanadianRip is off his rocker... sometimes I think he might be on to something...

A quick search brought up all kinds of legal actions like this »www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/pdf···/MDG.pdf against MDG. That's doesn't mean that the media are ignoring him or that they are influenced by advertisers. Just that MDG is a company I would not do business with. Caveat Emptor.

And given that there is something called journalist ethics, the suggestion that there is a crossover (Sun Media excepted) is exaggerated.

[att=1]

The practice of removing the printer cartridge is an extension of the printer manufacturer's practice of putting partial cartridges in new printers so that you print a few pages and then have to buy a new one... which you don't discover until too late.

The practice of removing the printer cartridge is an extension of the printer manufacturer's practice of putting partial cartridges in new printers so that you print a few pages and then have to buy a new one... which you don't discover until too late.

In fact MDG managed to get their PR machine to write up a full page editorial on Goran Varaklic the CEO as some kind of brilliant business person.

I'm familiar with MDG's extremely unethical business practices, right down to criminal acts, and I've always wondered how they were never called on their shit.

Want one example - dig up one major scathing article about MDG Computers exposing their unethical business practices in a major news publication where they advertised major full page spreads frequently.

Wow, it's funny you bring that up... I'm the only person outside of a group of people I'm friends with thats ever echoed that question.

I'm familiar with MDG's extremely unethical business practices, right down to criminal acts, and I've always wondered how they were never called on their shit.

A company with a history of screwing over people for over a decade, and not one person manages to blow the whistle? I wonder why that is...

I couldn't find anything on Google about the payment to W5 by Mosanto but I found this:

»www.ctvnews.ca/scc-ruling-means-···1.267426

(CTV network virtually cheering a Mosanto court victory over impoverished small farmers, what a coincidence that CTV is the only network in Toronto reporting this victory)

That might be in community TV, not in commercial TV, I've spent enough time in it to know exactly how the system works.

You really don't know how the media works.

Quick question though, when was the last time there was a produce recall in Canada due to excessive pesticides? None that I can remember.