Comment by gcanyon

Comment by gcanyon 14 hours ago

Serious question: around 1900 meat was often preserved using formaldehyde, and milk was adulterated with water and chalk, and sometimes with pureed calf brains to simulate cream.

I hope we can agree that we are better off than that now.

What I'm curious about is whether you think it's been a steady stream of improvements, and we just need to improve further? Or if you think there was some point between 1900 and now where food health and safety was maximized, greater than either 1900 or now, and we've regressed since then?

abdullahkhalids 14 hours ago

Trying to collapse high dimensional, complex phenomena onto a single axis usually gives one a fake sense of certainty. One should avoid it as much as possible.

Reply View 1 reply

gcanyon 5 hours ago

And yet we report gun deaths per year, smoking rates, sea warming, etc. etc. The error isn't in producing or considering an aggregate result, but in ignoring where it came from. Since this is an internet forum and not a policy think tank I think that error is largely moot.
Or put another way: it was a simple question that the ggp can answer or not as they choose. I was just curious for their perspective.

Reply View | 0 replies

cjflog 13 hours ago

I don't know, but I do know there is room for improvement from where we are now, and I think we should strive to do better.

Reply View 1 reply

gcanyon 5 hours ago

For sure! Turnabout for the goose etc.:
My instinct is that things have largely gotten better over time. At a super-macro level, in 1900 we had directly adulterated food that e.g. the soldiers receiving Chicago meat called "embalmed". In the mid-20th century we had waterways that caught fire and leaded gas.
By the late 20th we had clean(er) air (this is all from a U.S. perspective) and largely safe food. I think if we were to claim a regression, the high point would have to be around 2000, but I can't point to anything specific going on now that wasn't also going on then -- e.g. I think microplastics were a thing then as well, we just weren't paying attention.

Reply View | 0 replies