Choosing foods with a lower 'death toll' to pests

rubadub

I read an argument before about certain foods which might not be as "life friendly" as you would think. e.g. that to make flour you harvest grains and usually will kill X amount of field mice per ton harvested with a combine.

On that "come dine with me" program I saw people complain about the killing of 3 birds to make the "bird in a bird in a bird" dish. Yet these same people might eat a whole prawn cocktail with 10 prawns in it without a second thought.

Does anybody go out of their way to avoid foods which involve higher than usual killing 'pests'?
I saw this and was reminded of a post here before where I think somebody equated all life equally, even small insects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_Defect_Action_Levels

Frozen broccoli Insects and mites Average of 60 or more aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams
Hops Insects Average of more than 2,500 aphids per 10 grams

I don't think it can be practically eliminated but could be reduced. e.g. looking online hops are added to beer at a rate of about 14–28 g per 19L batch. So about 0.8g used per pint, so up to 200 aphids just to make 1 pint of beer.

Roselm

rubadub wrote: »

I read an argument before about certain foods which might not be as "life friendly" as you would think. e.g. that to make flour you harvest grains and usually will kill X amount of field mice per ton harvested with a combine.

On that "come dine with me" program I saw people complain about the killing of 3 birds to make the "bird in a bird in a bird" dish. Yet these same people might eat a whole prawn cocktail with 10 prawns in it without a second thought.

Does anybody go out of their way to avoid foods which involve higher than usual killing 'pests'?
I saw this and was reminded of a post here before where I think somebody equated all life equally, even small insects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_Defect_Action_Levels

I don't think it can be practically eliminated but could be reduced. e.g. looking online hops are added to beer at a rate of about 14–28 g per 19L batch. So about 0.8g used per pint, so up to 200 aphids just to make 1 pint of beer.

Hi OP.Interesting idea-I had never really thought about this.
Mass production of anything will have a toll I suppose. Im not sure youre goi ng to find much that you CAN eat...?Also rather than thinking about the impact of harvesting a whole field you probably only need to look at what percentage of the field you will eat and therefore proportion of the death toll you are responsible for.
I suppose the easiest way might be for you to grow as much of your own food as you can because with less processing you will probably have less of an impact on pests although of course you will always get some!

rubadub

Roselm wrote: »

I suppose the easiest way might be for you to grow as much of your own food as you can

Yes, or choose companies who take better care. Like instead of drinking beer somebody might choose a wine which uses hand picked grapes and no pesticides. Rodents are a huge problem in grain so I wonder if some companies go the extra mile and might have non-lethal deterrents or something.

Eriopis

rubadub wrote: »

I read an argument before about certain foods which might not be as "life friendly" as you would think. e.g. that to make flour you harvest grains and usually will kill X amount of field mice per ton harvested with a combine.

On that "come dine with me" program I saw people complain about the killing of 3 birds to make the "bird in a bird in a bird" dish. Yet these same people might eat a whole prawn cocktail with 10 prawns in it without a second thought.

Does anybody go out of their way to avoid foods which involve higher than usual killing 'pests'?
I saw this and was reminded of a post here before where I think somebody equated all life equally, even small insects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_Defect_Action_Levels

I don't think it can be practically eliminated but could be reduced. e.g. looking online hops are added to beer at a rate of about 14–28 g per 19L batch. So about 0.8g used per pint, so up to 200 aphids just to make 1 pint of beer.

I wouldn't go to the extreme of counting aphids etc, but certainly veganism has been the choice for me with regards to reducing the number of lives impacted by my diet - animals reared for meat require grain foods too, and altogether much less land and resources are required for a vegan diet, with less habitat destruction.

blatantrereg

No. I squish bugs.

Killing field mice and other animals is regrettable, but Eriopis is right that habitat destruction and farming food for animals has a much greater impact on them than farming vegetable foods for humans directly.

That link is disgusting. I avoid processed foods when it comes to fruit and veg etc, but bread and peanut butter I eat.

I do avoid vegetables from certain countries - mainly if their hygiene in producing them seems questionable to me, but also if a more local alternative is available. In practice that usually means China. An awful lot of Chinese people carry ascaris worms. You get them by consuming human feces (or vegetables which have been fertilized or otherwise contaminated with human feces). China does not allow non-nationals to inspect their food production also, and a large number of alarming incidents have been reported wrt their food production.

I do think that food production in Ireland, and in the EU in general, is generally cleaner and more ethical than most other places.

rubadub

Found this page while reading about the horse meat issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_food_and_drink#Vegetables

Vegetables like broccoli, while not taboo, may be avoided by observant Jews and other religions due to the possibility of insects hiding within the numerous crevices. Likewise, fruits such as blackberries and raspberries are recommended by kashrut agencies to be avoided as they can not be cleaned thoroughly enough without destroying the fruit.

Some are more amusing

The followers of Pythagoras were vegetarians, and "Pythagorean" at one time came to mean "vegetarian". However, their creed prohibited the eating of beans. The reason is unclear: perhaps the flatulence they cause, perhaps as protection from potential favism, but most likely for magico-religious reasons.