rthom7
Member
- Aug 23, 2014
- 425
- 60
I agree that our food was better for us without all the chemical additives. My two uncles who were born and lived their whole lives on a farm where they grew and ate their own vegetables knew how to do that, and their food sure didn't need any enhancements to make it look or taste good, even to someone like me who's always lived on the typical American diet. They both died int heir 80's and had very few sicknesses and never any major sicknesses in their lives.
But I wonder about two things. First, when has the world in general ever lived on a "plant based diet" at any time since perhaps before Noah's flood? To my knowledge we've always been omnivores. And also, the worlds current population is over 7 times what it was even as recent as the 1700s, currently 7 billion compared to less than 1 billion 1n 1700 and estimated around 200 million at the time of Christ. This means people need a lot more land space to live on leaving much less space for growing plants but yet need to feed many times times the population of previous centuries when food used to be produced more naturally. How would that be done today without these chemicals and advanced methods for growing food quicker in less space?
I agree completely with the concept that our food should be healthier, and that these modern methods are preventing that. But it seems to me the alternative for today would create widespread famine, which is even more unhealthy. Somewhere I read an article penned by an environmental group that concluded for the human population of the earth to go back to a sustainable way of living naturally off of the land, the birth rate has to be lowered to zero AND approximately 2/3 of our current population must die. I've never really heard any practical or acceptable solutions to the problem.
Obadiah, you write some really good points...
In Papua New Guinea where I spent ten years as a missionary, I witnessed large people groups living as sole vegetarians, and I can safely write not only do the people eat vegetables their entire life but so do the dogs, every dog in PNG is vegetarian too. Only during rare feasts such as marriages will they eat meat, such as chickens...now if you throw in the other religious groups contrary to Bible instructions, some groups also eat pig meat....
In Abraham's day people were nomadic and ate home grown goats and milk and soft cheese...products of the animals, yes, but directly related to their eating grass...I lived in the country of Australia, a desert wilderness much like Abraham's time, and raising vegetables was very difficult. We lived on sheep meat and cow's milk, with some vegetables only when it rained....sometimes once per year it rained....
The garden living of Eden is an ideal method of living, based on better soil, air and water...crops can grow better, but its not easy to achieve. There is no need to reduce the world's population, Scientist can make enough food easily on crop production now, its more a problem of distribution, rather than production. Monsanto DuPont and others make this excuse for GMO foods, which sadly is going to reduce global food resources and spoil farm lands for years...the affect of GMO disease will come to USA soon, but then it will be too late to reverse the death rate and the damage.
The best practical solution to economical growth is to ask why do countries need a growth rate of 4% annually ? Why? Because share holders want more money...that's why....If a Government set the growth rate to 0%, people would not need money, and so they would not populate as much...did such countries exist like this ? Well the Pacific Island people have lived that way for centuries, until the West came along and wanted them to adopt the greed model of wanting more...in PNG this religion is called cargo cultism. It is much like the Santa Claus religion, the presents of materialism is more important than the personal relationships when groups come together.
You have to live some years on an Island watching these people live to experience what true living is all about...
In heaven the economic growth rate will be zero, money will cease to exist, and humans will not have babies. In the mean time eating healthy is not about living longer, but experiencing daily living in Jesus better, more powerfully and without physical pain.
Shalom