For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 01, 2010

Ha!

Thus endeth the self-righteous lecture for today.

At the third panel, Annie looks so shocked. Priceless! LOLs! X-D

Organic food .. the phrase always cracks me up… inorganic food would be rocks and minerals

What I can’t figure out is why organic food is more expensive… if the farmer didn’t have to buy all that expensive pesticide and then didn’t have to pay someone to spray it we should see some savings there I think.

Organic foods are more expensive because people are willing to pay more for them.

It’s simple supply and demand. Organic food costs more because organic farming is less efficient and produces less crop. It is also generally a higher quality crop, which raises the demand as well. Lower supply + higher demand = higher prices.

Looks like Anne is getting a little payback for Elly’s “diet lecture” from 2 weeks ago…

http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/004416.php

Even people who eat super healthy can get sick. It always bugs me when people say that. I know people who eat terribly that never ever get sick. Plus just because it’s organic or carries the label of “healthy” doesn’t mean it is good for you.

My mom let me play in the mud when I was little, and now I have a wonderful immune system. Diet is not what builds up the immune system (though I am sure it does help). Exposure to GERMS are a major factor though.

The world has 7 BILLION people Pesticides stop bugs from eating crops Who are we going to feed, humans or bugs? Oh yeah, water is inorganic so we can’t have that touch the crops.

Lewreader, haha yes I’m waiting eagerly for the first commercial for “organic water”…

Eating a little dirt might be good for the kids. There’s increasing evidence that keeping children in too-sterile environments prevents their immune systems from developing properly, leading to poor disease resistance and auto-immune disorders (allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.) later in life.

Specking of Winston Churchill’s cigars. I’ve heard tails of how he would go up on the roof to watch the bombing raids, and someone would have to go up and tell him to put out his cigar. (makes a good target you know)

\\//_

“all sanity is lost.”

Eating foods(specifically honey)grown locally will help build immunity to pollens and allergens in your area. Who’d a thunk it? ;)

Eating higher quality food, but less of it, is good for you and good for the world.

My question is - Why are the two outside,without an adult watching them, in the first place?

Cyanide is organic and all-natural. Not very healthy, though.

For organic predators to keep an eye on, eric?

Actually was a band of folks who ate dirt as part of the belief that it was where the minerals came from so it was better than the stuff that grew in it. The ‘60’s and ‘70’s all that “other’ organic stuff had nan effect on thinking. Lucky that’s over with, huh? (It’s a JOKE!!!)

The “Nature vs Nurture” arguments are almost as old as dirt [grin]. Nature / genetics have a very large factor but don’t help you if you are accident prone. Sir Winston probably wore out his guardian angel in his very adventurous youth.

Nurture (what happens after birth) does play what appears to be equal significance. As puddleglum1066 says, childhood exposure to nature really helps when their immune systems are at their maximum efficiency.

Susan, my grandfather insisted on fatty gravy with every meal. I don’t remember if he was a drinker, but he smoked at least a pack a day and usually more until the day he died. He lived to be 92.

While people are talking organic versus non, I thought I’d throw out there that it is debatable that current industrial farming is actually more productive than organic farming. Industrial farming methods strip the soil of it’s nutrients and then attempt to put the nutrients back in again chemically. As a result of poorer soil quality, the production is less, and the food grown is poorer in nutrients as well. In comparison, although the organic foods may loose some produce to bugs etc (though not as much as you might think) the amount produced per acre is comparable to industrial farming, and of a better quality.

It’s only more expensive because the demand is high and relatively few farms grow organic.

Check out this article from the university of Berkeley

http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~christos/articles/cvorganicfarming.html

Organic Water - didn’t Ziggy get some the other day?

@ Daydreammewmew,

This is true. I read recently that there is a report that found that one of the reasons there are so many allergies these days is because we are not as exposed to dirt and germs as our ancestors were.

In my experience healthy eating doesn’t mean the virus’ don’t get you, only that you recover faster.

eric cook:

I’m with you there! Michael isn’t old enough to be outside supervising 2 very small children on his own! Unfortunately, I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that Elly and Anne probably didn’t even knew they were outside to begin with!!!!!

gulfcoastgrl: Thanks for the tip!

The comments here about eating well or badly, or smoking, and so on, all deal with individuals. Not enough people to prove anything in a scientific way.

Eric Cook - BECAUSE THEY ARE LOUSY PARENTS! Who but them puts babies outside alone? They probably laid the babies in the dirt on their stomachs (like she did when she was sick) before they left them alone outside to “play”. Wait until you get a load of Connie. She tops them all.

Back to the doctors. This week, deWORMING!

I can’t believe anyone would leave their children alone, but I guess things must have been done differently back in those days, sort of like when they would put the baby in the back window, and children rode in the backs of pickup trucks. I am guilty of enjoying being in the back of a truck riding with the wind in my face and laughing with my friends. Of course, we didn’t know or care about the potential dangers.

At the risk of upsetting someone, I just heard that a 7 month old died after being left in a car in Texas. The baby was forgotten. I can’t imagine how the parents feel, I know I would be devastated…and I guess they are being villified, which will not help matters. My heart goes out to them - it’s a harsh lesson to learn.

Gretchen’s Mom, I left a post for you on yesterdays comic!

Mrs. Luke:

Lizzie was not on her stomach. She was on her side as she should have been according to pediatricians so she did not choke on her vomit if she threw up. They are not small babies. They are toddlers. They can lay anyway they want and still be able to get up. Back then you could probably leave them in a fenced yard and keep an eye on them from the kitchen. Kids that age almost always eat dirt (mud pies anyone?) Unless you have put a heap of pesticides into the garden they will be fine. It is a mess to clean them up though. Do you have any children? If you do not, then please stop bashing those of us who do. Also, Please do not take this personally as you have in the past. I have my opinion, you have yours. Noahs Mama had it right. Things were done differently back then, for better or for worse.

Organic farming is an immature market. If people, say, demanded it from Wal-mart, organic food would become cheaper in a hurry. And I don’t just mean that their economies of scale would roll back the prices.

Also, this strip causes way too much drama from people who either have selective memories or apparently never had kids. As the parent of a 2 year old, I can safely say based on my own experience, and the admissions of every other parent I know, no matter how observant you are, they always manage to get something pretty yuk into their mouths at least once: pet food, food dropped on the floor, sand from their sandbox, bubble bath soap bubbles, wood chips on the playground, you name it.

Even some of the holiers-than-thous talking about bad cartoon parents probably ate paste or chewed a crayon, or made a mud pie and took a bite. Somehow we all survived.

Amen GuntotingLiberal

Aces mate.

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Walmart does sell organic food and hormone free dairy products.

Organic food costs more to produce because it takes more labor to produce it, and labor is more expensive than chemicals. However, research is now showing that food produced on land which has been managed chemically is less nutritious than food raised on healthy soil.

And for those of you who are buying into the idea that only BigAg and Monsanto can raise enough food to feed the growing population - consider the TONs of good food which is wasted by turning food (potatoes, grain, whatever) into calory heavy nutritionless ‘snack food’.

Agriculture needs to be decentralized and given back to the farmers. If it doesn’t happen soon, you’ll have famine on your doorstep, not just overseas in those ‘corrupt’ countries.

I think we can all all really help world hunger by growing more virtual Vegetables in Farmville Remember your helping to feed nonexistent starving people worldwide so keep up the good work !

MrsLuke is right about the de-worming. There is a dog around.

I looked at the strip again, and I rule that Lizzie is on her stomach in those panels. But she is really not a baby now and in danger of SIDS.

Hot weather coming…..more deaths this summer from children being left in cars. Be watchful.

In the 70’s we could let our kids play out side in the yard. I did growing up in the 50’s-60’s. Gosh, we left the yard and roamed the neighbourhood. Everyone did. We ran and played from sunup to sundown. I can remember the Moms calling their kids in when the street lights went on. Those were the days.

Eating dirt – as all kids do (and most survive). One gaggo tho is watching kids playing in the public drinking fountain, then hands in mouth – with mom watching. Also shoes on the table while the kids are eating & mom put them there.

Don’t for get the very expensive certification processes that organic farms have to go through. Part of why there are not so many.

This was the 80’s, not the 70’s, and those two babies can barely even walk yet, especially Anne’s kid. I never saw anyone in their right kind lay babies out on the lawn and leave them there alone! Even when they ARE old enough to play outside alone, you still watch them which neither of these dingbats is doing. The people arguing about that really make me wonder. I see why you’re always on the defensive about the things you obviously did to your kids.

Thanks Summerdog. Some people just always have to argue about anything, no matter what I say, even when the facts are right there in print. It makes you wonder what they actually see when they read this strip, because it isn’t what this woman drew. Especially when it comes to the personalities of these characters.

Eating dirt results in parasites and worms, especially pin worms, especially in children, dog or no dog. That’s why you buy bleached sand for the sandbox. You don’t just fill it with mud. While all kids play in mud, they don’t all eat it!