Jun 23, 2010

Is your supermarket produce traditional, organic, or genetically modified?

Ever see those digits on food produce? Well they actually represent the produce and whether it was grown organically, genetically modified, or traditionally.

Wikipedia:
"The code is usually a four-digit number, currently in the 3000–4999 range, identifying the type of bulk produce, including the variety. A fifth digit may be prefixed to the number to indicate if the produce is organic (prefixed by a '9') or genetically modified (prefixed by an '8')"

This means the specif code for the produce will either look like one of these three: XXXX, 8XXXX, or 9XXXX.

Let's take the Fiji Apple: if the apple says 4131 its traditional, 94131 its organic, and 84131 it's genetically modified.

Now, whether genetically modified food is actually harmful in anyway is still largely up for debate.

Jun 20, 2010

Burning Plastic

Let's burn plastic.

Plastics are necessary for agriculture, yet "used" plastics fill our dumps and pristine wilderness.  What should we do with the leftover plastics we use?  We can recycle some, but Penn State Extension is learning about how we can responsibly burn it.

Take a look at this slideshow:  Penn State Extension Plastic Fuel
By heating the furnace up to 1100 degrees centigrade, the compressed plastics burn clean.

As the project suggests though, a desire by communities to legalize this resource must come first before implementation.  Let me know if your community has made any progress on burning plastics!