You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Thomas comments on Organic food, conventional food - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: NancyLebovitz 14 June 2012 03:25PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (55)

Comments (55)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Thomas 14 June 2012 03:59:46PM 3 points [-]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxE9sYatPAs

Comment author: Eneasz 14 June 2012 04:27:09PM 1 point [-]

Fascinating! Are there any rebuttals to the comments available? I'm particular interested in the replies to:

Synthetic insecticides may or may not be worse, part of the problem is that synthetic pesticides do not primarily work by mutagenesis like many natural ones to. They are neurotoxins (organophosphates, pyrethrins, DDT, carbamates), endocrine disruptors (juvenile hormones).

As I'm more concerned about neurotoxicity (if any) than carcinogens

Comment author: [deleted] 16 June 2012 04:36:26AM 2 points [-]

The claim is a bit misleading. Pyrethrin is in fact a natural pesticide, derived from chrysanthemums; the pyrethroids are semisynthetic derivatives of pyrethrin and work similarly. Phytoestrogens are a huge class of natural endocrine disruptors, although they are probably not nearly as potent or specific as the ones used for insect control.

It's also worth noting that insects have very different neurochemistry from vertebrates, and some of the neurotoxic pesticides affect receptors that vertebrates don't seem to have at all.

Comment author: Manfred 14 June 2012 05:22:21PM 1 point [-]

Of course, that's from the perspective of cancer, while we've been seeing worse things from other biological effects.

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit