StuartBNov 10, 2023
Helen Czerski

It's just occurred to me that in medicine, we have clinical trials that consider the effect of a drug on the whole system - a whole human body. If you get a brain tumour from a kidney treatment, they'll notice.

But for food/farming, that's not the case. We never do trials on the whole system - the natural environment. It's only ever local - effects on yield in one field. And maybe that's why modern food systems cause problems, for the climate, human health etc.

#food #science #climate #farming

Nov 10, 2023 at 12:09pmWeb
Show threadWouter 🛰️Nov 10, 2023
@helenczerski Spot on. And on top of that, those that attempt such a holistic approach are met with market pressure and lobbygroups.
Show threadLewisNov 10, 2023

@[email protected] corruption is a major problem.
As the pollenating insects and bees die, the party of big evil does this...

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/government-allows-banned-pesticide

UK government allows ‘emergency’ use of banned bee-harming pesticide just days after EU tightens protections | The Wildlife Trusts

UK government allows ‘emergency’ use of banned bee-harming pesticide just days after EU tightens protections

Show threadPhil Thane ✅Nov 10, 2023
@helenczerski Although medics are not always great at finding the side effects of their prescriptions. My wife had shoulder and upper arm pain for seven years and saw many, many doctors. Mostly they sent her to physio and suggested 'fibromyalgia' which seems to be catch-all diagnosis for pain we don't understand. After 7 years someone noticed it was a listed side effect of her glaucoma eye drops. Changed the drops and the pain went.
Show threadDustin BentonNov 10, 2023

@helenczerski It's worse than that: we don't trial and also rarely even model the system wide effects.

But here's my org's attempt to do so for the UK: https://green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Shaping-UK-land-use.pdf

Show threadPeter BrownNov 10, 2023
@helenczerski it’s why increasing numbers of people cannot take wheat, due to the chemicals applied to it in the field