There is much more profit to be made from disease than from wellness.
Health maintainence does not generate huge profits for pharmaceutical
concerns, compared to the treatment of illness. Antibiotics are used
liberally in animal husbandry because they have been useful in mitigating
the negative effects of intensive management, up till now. Agribusiness has
created the perfect environment for the breeding of resistant strains of
bacteria. We are just at the beginning of this deadly harvest. There is
much more, and worse, to come.
At the same time, both urban and rural populations have been separated from
the source of their food. Organisms develop tolerance for each other when
they live in the same ecosystem. With no exposure to common soil organisms,
people fail to develop resistance and are prone to catastophic illness from
infection. All this is compounded by the stresses of living in a sea of
pollution, forced to eat food whose nutritive value has been comprimised in
favour of long shelf life and outward appearance.
>This brings up a very fundamental question. Is economics running
>the world or should we place people and ecology first? From here it
>looks like bad economics is behind the salmonella problem and most
>of our problems in agriculture, health, ecology, etc.
Economics has always run the world. In the age to come, enlightened
economic analysis will use a wholistic accounting system which factors in
the value of a healthy ecosystem when calculating profit and loss. For four
hundred years, industrial civilization has been passing on the true "costs
of production" to future generations in the form of depleted resources and
polluted envrionments. Eventually all the bills will have to be paid. The
longer we wait, the higher the cost will be.
In spite of all this apparent doom and gloom, we all still have the power to
choose an alternative every time we make a purchase. Let us choose wisely!
Jeff Gold
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