• KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    Also basic food preservation techniques are ubiquitous and historically extremely important, and most/all of those involved somehow filling the food with “cHeMiCaLs” so that it wouldn’t spoil (salt, acid, sometimes sugar, smoke, fermentation byproducts, etc) all of which are as “bad” or notably worse than modern food preservation methods.

    Their point isn’t just wrong about people doing fine without food preservation, it’s also wrong about them not having similar-but-worse food preservation.

    • proceduralnightshade@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      Nah this (edit: the tweets, not your reply) is just dumbing down and turning a valid point into a non-discussion. Chemicals ≠ chemicals. Some are safe, some are not safe. Some you can have a lot of, some need moderation. Some are artificial, some are not. Those people just can’t not think in black and white.

      Also, a lot of really effective food preservation today don’t even require chemicals inside the food. A bit of citric acid, yeah, or some vitamin c. Canned goods are a really, really effective way of storing food. You don’t need chemicals for that. Like, there’s this whole BPA-discussion but this regards chemicals in the packaging, not the product itself.

      Oh funny shit I found on Wikipedia btw

      A [doomer] would also be interested in stockpiling canned food upon learning about a recession [citation needed]

      ahahahaha

      • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        Chemicals ≠ chemicals. Some are safe, some are not safe. Some you can have a lot of, some need moderation. Some are artificial, some are not. Those people just can’t not think in black and white.

        The bigger issue that a lot of the worst parts of food aren’t really modern, they’re just more accessible in modern foods. Like excessive amounts of salt, sugars, and fat, all of which are fine and necessary in certain quantities but which get used in a very imbalanced way. These preserve food and when used correctly improve its flavor, but in a lot of modern slop get overused in a form that’s specifically engineered to avoid satiation and keep people buying and consuming more well above the level of what they want or need.

        There are also additives like dyes and stabilizers that might not be great for people to eat, but which still pale in comparison to the carcinogenic (and other, also harmful) effects of just like chugging bottles of syrup for hydration or relying on heavily salted instant food.

        And that’s before you even get to issues like heavy metal contamination and whatnot, that aren’t intentionally added but which show up anyways.

        Also, a lot of really effective food preservation today don’t even require chemicals inside the food.

        Exactly, like there’s pasteurization and irradiation and sterile airtight packaging which can replace or supplement what are basically just more advanced versions of traditional preservation methods like giving food a PH that bacteria and fungi can’t tolerate, using salts, sugars, and fat to make it too desiccating to spoil easily, etc.

  • Meltyheartlove [love/loves, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    My parents are exactly like this and resorted to traditional medicine and homeopathy. I don’t know how I survived my childhood being so seriously sick so many times and being “cured” like that. The chemicals bit was one that I frequently heard. Well at least they believed in vaccination although they did ask me if it was possible for the government to stalk people with a covid vaccine. They also have a tendency to think the middle ages was heaven on earth. Once they blamed my mental health troubles on the way house was constructed or arranged and there was bad energy leaking into my forehead something something…

  • ThermonuclearEgg [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    If they hear about tankies, suddenly they know about evil gommunism with the Great Chinese Famine and the Arduous March and are fully ready to explain how gommunism killed 89s87g9d8fgnyadogiusldfksbAF people

    • sisatici [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      Your brain on capitalism. If they had any critical thinking, they would realise one of the world’s coldest places to live and one of the most populated place to live are not immune to starvation because efficiency of capitalism or some shit. Both countries have an extensive history in famines, even if you forget famines occurred in much more fertile lands

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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        4 days ago

        even if you forget famines occurred in much more fertile lands

        Ukraine had famine every few years on average before 1917. China had major famine (at least one entire province) every single year for almost 2000 years. Except since 1949 it had just one.

    • Lemister [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      Like during the 1920s in america there was a famine (dustbowl + Great Depression) until the green revolution (and communist states) famines were ubiquitous.

  • Fishroot [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    Preservative and advancement in agricultural sector are the main reasons why modern Humanity managed to increase its calories intake.

    Coincidentally it`s also the reason why there are no widespread and grand scale revolutions in our era since decrease in Calories is usually one of the main factor of uprising

  • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    What are even these arguments. There’s criticism to be had of current food systems without it being dismissed as “anti-science woo/pro-starvation”. Many uses of additives/preservatives/“chemicals” follow the profit motive and an extractive mode of agricultural and food production, not a need to make safe food available to all. Restructuring food systems to produce nutritious, safe, and wholesome food requires looking critically at the way food is produced, distributed and preserved, and not worshipping at the altar of the Green Revolution because wheat yields went up.

    Just because a chud is expressing an uninformed opinion on food safety and food security, does it mean the current global food system is fine and dandy and that all changes have been for the better. Recognizing the need for cleaner, more local, and fairer food systems doesn’t make me or the millions of peasants, indigenous peoples and activists fighting for agricultural biodiversity and food and seed sovereignty around the world chuds. The use of additives is not evil in itself, but it is a good litmus test on how food access is mediated by processed and ultraprocessed foods as opposed to fresh foods grown fairly and safely.

    • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      These arguments exist because the problem is capitalism, but there’s a whole ecosystem of nonsense designed to trap people into blaming literally anything else other than the actual root cause of the problem. Most anti-modern food system arguments aren’t arguing against the “capitalism” and “profit motive” parts, they’re just screaming into a megaphone that they slept through all their high school science classes. It’s pure ignorance, and thus I think “No investigation, no right to speak” should apply here.

      There is plenty to say about food additives for sure. You raised a lot of solid points yourself, but a CHUD isn’t bringing up any of those points. They’re far more likely to insist that some vague insidious “chemicals” are added to their food by their scapegoat of the week. There’s no discussion to be had with someone who doesn’t even have the most basic understanding of the issue and is just flailing around in the dark.

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    Famine is a social problem, not a technological one. Starvation happens when all prospects for food are held under a single stream of production or import, and that source fails.

    Even without Green Revolution tech, one square mile of cultivated land can feed 2000 people.