[Sue Deacon]

I have just started watching a series of talks on Home Grown Food. You might find this interesting, especially the first talk - a real eye-opener!


http://www.homegrownfoodsummit.com/event/

[Greengage]

Australian honey is the most contaminated in the world and contains cancer-causing toxins as a result of lenient food-safety standards, according to new research.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/30624544/australian-honey-is-most-contaminated-in-the-world-research-reveals/

[Sue Deacon]

Worrying isn't it? This summit has a talk about keeping your own bees, and other stock. It said us backyard gardners grow 70% of the world's food on 30% of the arable land. While big, industrial farms grow only 30% of food on 70% of the land. Most of their land is given over to growing grain for livestock and palm oil/sugar.

[Greengage]

When people talk about keeping bees to save the bees it is a waste of time.
Honey bees are eusocial and forage on one type of plant at at time, they store Nectar and Pollen for times of scarcity, in Ireland this would be Oil seed rape, Chestnut, Hawthorn and Apples,Other Polinators such as Bumblebees/ Hoverflies/solitary bees and Butterflies forage on more plants and travel shorter distances they only need stores to last until winter as most die off during these months and their Larvae live underground, Queen Bumblebees also survive in hiumernation over winter underground. so if you want to encourage pollinators then plant more flowers suitable for them, If you want to help Honey bees which are not in any danger (except from Beekeepers) then plant fields of OSR or Phacelia or Lavander or a huge Orchard.

[Sue Deacon]

I don't want to keep bees, but I want to do all I can to help them in their vital job - pollinating the plants we eat. I have an orchard (9 ancient apple trees!) and a carpet of winter flowering heathers that provide nectar for bees that appear early.

[Blowin]

I think it's been known for decades that, per acre/hectare, land devoted to fruit and veg will produce far more food than it will if used for grazing animals for meat. However, because vegetarianism is unsustainable, the only other option is vegan, i.e. no milk, cheese, yoghurt, eggs etc. and that ain't nice?

[Greengage]

Is that an urban myth or do you have scientific proof.
Bit like the Organic movement.

[Sue Deacon]

No, I've read that too. The problem is with a lot of 'scientific evidence' is it costs money. You can't patent the stuff nature provides, ie turmeric and other spices, cruciferous vegetables, coconut, garlic, cider vinegar and even simple things like Vitamin D. So there is no point spending money on investigating claims about them. So they are dismissed as 'old wives tales' and 'not proven'.

As for organic, for us it is not so much that organic food is 'better' for us, it is that we think GMO food and modern, industrial farming practices are slowly destroying the planet and are unsustainable.

I'll admit in the past I have used just about every chemical going, including gallons of Glyphosate. I fell for the con that it becomes inert on contact with the soil. The more I look into it the more guilty I feel. I suppose I am a classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper!

[Blowin]

I'm one of those simple souls who more or less believes what I see in print. I assume no-one is daft enough to knowingly print a load of total drivel on this sort of topic.

I've never bothered to prove or disprove the veg v meat argument but am tempted to believe it when I think how much pasture is needed to not only graze a meat animal throughout its 18-21 month (?) life, but also to grow silage/hay etc. for winter feed. Then mentally imagine two seasons' worth of, say, spuds or brassicas from that same plot and I personally feel the veg would win hands down in terms of feeding x number of people?

[Greengage]

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/small-potatoes-space-for-spuds-at-20-year-low-as-prices-fall-1.2339374
http://www.ifa.ie/sectors/potato/
Farming is a business not a hobby, you often hear the middle class speak ill of the farmers, most would not survive a day walking the fields never mind lambing, Calving, Planting crops on a large scale oh the dont even like the smell of the countryside.
You can read lots on the Internet most are probably written by people like us who have an opinion and it gathers momentum, lots of it is bunk.