James, the reason you are not dead yet from eating 24 cantaloupes in a year is that the lemon you always sucking on neutralizes the poison!!! If you are trying for the designation of official Feelies sourpuss, you can have it!! Just ask!! You are always remarking about how depressing I make it around here, but seem to keep coming back for more, so I have to assume you like the role . . .
Seriously, though, pesticides have only been widely used since the 50's. While the per capita rate of all cancers has been rising steadily since then, the U.S. government will only state that certain pesticides are "generally recognized as safe" for the population to consume. No measurements are made to determine what the safe TOTAL consumption is of pesticides, since each of us swills the toxic brew in different proportions, depending on our preference for specific fruits and vegetables.
This is a free country!! While pesticides are produced by huge companies which provide lucrative contracts to universities who do research on them, and pronouce them safe, and have complex lobbying and funding relationships with our government and our political parties, and are very SELF-interested in promoting chemicals, go ahead and eat as many as you would like. The little trick to understand is that environmentally caused cancers can take from 20 to 40 years to develop, so you will feel fine for quite a while longer. Some of us are neurotic and don't like to take those chances, and some of us are much more cavalier. This is a choice everyone has to make individually.
You still eat sugar?? Didn't you know that consumption of even the most minute amounts of sugar causes . . . (just kidding!) |
