wolit (03/21/83)
[Quotes below are from Harvey Trop, mhuxt!hstrop] Without ... chemicals, many of the foods that we have become dependant [sic] upon ... wouldn't be available. Since not all restaurants and not all grocery stores treat their produce with sodium bisulfite, this is clearly false. Perhaps "foods" normally sold in candy machines would disappear, since these ARE dependent on preservatives. I, for one, would not mourn their loss. The US is not an agarian society... Oh, really? Are you saying that the dollar value of our agricultural exports does not exceed that of our manufactured or mineral exports? Or hadn't you heard that business in Detroit, Pittsburgh, etc., is not so great these days? ... without these chemicals, you would find eating very boring. It is a nice thought that everyone be able to plant a garden and eat only "natural" foods, but if everyones life depended upon it, we'd be in sad shape. I'm not talking about eliminating fertilizers or even pesticides (though through biological controls and genetic engineering, we probably could, to good effect). Nor do I oppose refrigeration, freezing, canning, or any of the other non-chemical preservation methods. I doubt that sulfur dioxide caused a headache from drinking wine, not only are there better candidates naturally present in wine (ketones, aldehydes from ethanol,etc.), but there is a time problem. Wineries use burning sulfur sticks to fumigate wine casks. The casks are then left empty for fortyeight hours until the sulfur dioxide has diffused. It's true that there are several chemicals in wine capable of causing headaches (though ketones and aldehydes derive not from ethanol, but from the grapes themselves). It's also true that sulfur dioxide is one of them. It's also the only one we can do something about, since it's the only one we add intentionally. Much wine is aged in the bottle, not in casks. In these cases, sulfur dioxide is added directly to the wine, and is easily detected (by sniffing) in the final product. I should point out that I do not approve of artificial coloring, but let's not condemn all chemicals. I agree. H2O and EtOH are among my favorites. Jan Wolitzky, BTL MH, rabbit!wolit