Weep for the Young, Ignorance is Winning

Kids are cute. Birk Baehr's little Buncombe County, NC accent is cute, too. But what he is saying isn't very cute at all. It shows that indoctrination -- bad-economics-cum-eco-religion -- is getting to the young. And you better believe this has been the plan all along.

But, honestly, what's so objectionable about what this kid is saying?

Here's a quick list:

• He's demonizing "corporations," but leaves out government, which subsidizes a lot of the unhealthy things that are in the food system -- like high-fructose corn syrup and sugar (both of which are priced artificially low due to said subsidies, thus overused). 
• He picks on GMOs (so-called "frankenfoods") without providing any real evidence that GMOs are dangerous or more dangerous than ordinary or organic foods (the latter of which has been linked to recent eColi outbreaks).
• He uses the distance myth. Transported food uses no more energy than locally transported food. This is just an urban myth.
• He leaves out a very important fact about the Green Revolution. GMOs helped save millions of people in India and the developing world who would otherwise have starved (due to Norman Borlaug and higher achievable yields). 

• He leaves out gov't (again). If there is anything wrong with big agribusiness 'tainting the food supply' with GMOs, we have to wonder why only corporations get blamed, when the government seems to be inextricably linked to these eeeeevil corporations.

This "buy local" fetish is fine if: 

a) you want to pay far higher prices for food of variable quality (sometimes it's truly wonderful, other times just expensive); 

b) you don't give a shit about farmers in the third world who have very few options besides agriculture (which is the first pillar of their development as it was in the U.S.); 

d) you don't mind certain things at certain times of the year.

Let the mythbusting continue. And here. And here.

Don't get me wrong. I like some organic food. I also think it's important to eat healthily. But this "movement" is taking on all the features of a fadish religion in the vein of Scientology. The attack on common sense and science using children is pretty despicable. But whatever you think about child indoctrination, the enemies of reason are winning the schools. Hasn't that always been the plan?

More later this week on a related note (from Penn and Teller).

Comments

[Otto Maddox]

I have enjoyed many of the regular TED talks and have learned a great deal. But if one steps back and looks at TED objectively, what you have is a self-appointed group of elites suggesting ideas, based on centrally planning thinking, for how best to organize society, something that generally hasn't worked well, if not disastrously.

[Joe]

Great commentary.

I believe that's a typo on bulletpoint #4!

[The Biz of Life]

Thank god for Norman Borlaug. He saved millions of people from starvation.

[Robert Stair]

This is like telling everyone it was left wing conspiracy and government interference because paint manufactures had to take the lead out, which of course they would have done on their own as soon as their research showed lead could maybe cause brain damage.