Insects have a very important function on Earth just like everything else.  That function is to eat food that has gone rancid or that is beginning to go rancid. As soon as the pH of the food goes from the basic, or alkaline, pH that our stomachs prefer to the acidic pH that our stomachs have trouble digesting, insects come along and start eating.

Mass produced food cannot aviod a huge portion of their crops turing slightly acidic before harvest and thus they use pesticides to improve the LOOK of food (not the QUANTITY as you discovered Jade).

Thus, you can grow tomatoes in your back yard and nothing will touch them till you should have already. There is no need for pesticides whatsoever, unless of course you are exploting the land with ridiculously large yeilds where some will turn slightly acidic before others, and that is why non-organic food has less flavor---its already quite acidic after the long ride to the grocery store.

That's why flies won't touch organic fruit and veggies till they have been sitting for too long.  That's why its good to eat leftovers as soon as possible (even alkaline food turns acidic if it sits for too long).  That's why the body wants immediately-fresh food and not all the stale food that gets passed-out at the food bank.

Many books have been written about the pH of food that is ideal for our stomachs and our well being. I highly reccomend the book: "ALKALIZE OR DIE" by Dr. Baroody for anybody who cares about maximizing health. 

Another thing to consider: buffets are almost always too acidic. Meat turns acidic as it sits in your digestive system.  All that acid-building food depletes the body's enzymes that are needed to maintain energy and life.  THAT'S WHY YOU FEEL TIRED AFTER EATING HAMBURGERS! There is acid-producing music too: unharmonious chords are unsettling because they produce acid in the body too. Black pepper produces acid, try cayanne instead. The body produces excess acid under prolonged excess stress as well.

Awhile ago Norm asked why batdorf n bronson coffee gave him heartburn....my guess is that in addition to the coffee most of everything else he eats is acid-producing as well, and if you eat a lot of acid producing foods you'll have acid running up and down your esophagus because you're producing so much excess acid. Immunity, intelligence, longevity, creativity, and vitality go down the drain from there as well.

Another problem, of course, is that artificial mass produced harvests are the only way to support our huge population which has risen above the natural capabilities of Earth.

My guess is that if everyone starts eating locally from local farms and starts growing their own food (which is currently a federal offense), THEN hospitals will become less crowded, THEN ladies will stop having too many children without local food sources to support them, THEN communities will come together, THEN local charm will save us from the monotonous cultures harvested at Safeway and Costco, THEN the economy will switch to favor those who live according to the natural way of the Earth, and THEN WE WILL FEEL SAFER AND MORE UNITED AND MORE PROUD OF OUR WAYS, THEN we will stop pumping Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide into the atmoshpere (new cars keep pumping out the toxins that matter the most), THEN asthma rates will decrease in Detroit, concrete jungles will turn green, water will be purified naturally....I HAVE A DREAM...THAT EVERY AMERICAN CAN WALK DOWN THE STREET AND SEE FOOD GROWING FREELY, I HAVE A DREAM, THAT EVERY HUNGRY PERSON CAN GET OFF THEIR TAIL AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE NATURAL GROWING FOOD SYSTEM SO THAT THEY CAN DESERVE THEIR DINNER. I HAVE A DREAM...............THAT DOCTORS CAN START TREATING HEALTHY PEOPLE BECAUSE HOSPITALS WON'T BE SO OVERCROWDED.......I HAVE A DREAM: THAT THE FOOD IN MY FRIG CAME FROM MY OWN GARDEN....THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL LET FARMERS GROW THEIR OWN FOOD WITHOUT CHARGING THEM WITH DISRUPTING THE VERY COMMMERCE THAT IS TRASHING OUR EARTH AND ONLY MAKING A FEW PEOPLE RICH............


*EDIT: There is no need for *OIL-BASED* pesticides whatsoever! Natural pesticides might be required for local farms. Beer and Bleach are two perfectly good pesticides.

Thank-you Olycop for pointing out the foggy part of my comment, sometimes I type a little fast, you'd make a good editor Olycop. Thanks for chatting here.

The genius of Agri-Business productivity today is in its supplementation of the soil: NPK agriculture, or Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus amendments to the soil, is the driving element behind the huge yields. (And cheap water, too)* And in terms of mass, the harvests are large. But in terms of nutrition, they are not so large.

The pesticide issue is also important, because this makes people (and animals) directly ill. But the long term effect of NPK supplementation is that it leaves us without micronutrient minerals. The plants take out selenium, chromium, vanadium, etc and we don't put any (or much) back in. Multiply this by 40 years or 100 (most farm land in the US has been in production this long at least) and you get diminished capacity for food having ANY micronutrient nutrition. Widespread degenerative diseases such as diabetes result.

This is where organics have their chance: if we amend the soils with full spectrum minerals (ash from wood burned in our stoves was a good source in history) then we will get food which is healthy.

Oh, by the way - Chromium, Vanadium and Selenium are the three minerals which prevent diabetes - one in ten health care dollars can be saved by simply including these three minerals in small amounts in the diet, preferably as plants which have taken up the minerals (so it is biologically available for digestion in your tummy).

Of course, the amendment of an "organic" garden with compost made from food which did not have micronutrient minerals in it in the first place, is going to result in less than desirable results. Wood ash is actually our best bet for supplementing the soil in the short term. Long term, we must rebuild tilth and allow the full spectrum of funji, minerals, and soil bacteria to thrive as they will, and help our crops grow as well as they can. That means eventually learning how to return our own poop to the soil without causing disease. We can do it. In fact, we will do it or we will die off as a species.

As for pests, they are a problem - and not just in the late stages of fruiting as olycop points out. But the natural stages of insect life cycles each have their own predator relationships and we can use these to great effect. People have been known to use predatory insects on aphids, for example. There are better ways to deal with them than to poison ourselves, though.

*Cheap water - we should keep in mind that the Ogallala Aquifer has only a few short years left in it - perhaps a hundred years if there is no growth in demand, perhaps less since there will be much more demand likely. North Plains Groundwater Conservation District This water system is the main source of water for our "breadbasket to the world," and it does not recharge at anywhere near the rate at which we take from it. As we run out of oil, so too we will run out of this water (think of it as fossil glaciers). When we do, food will not be so cheap, or so plentiful, and our population will crash to come in line with our means.

Or we'll already have had a population crash due to the reduced fertility caused by estrogenic compounds in our air and water...