Slashdot Mirror
Garlic Farmer Wards Off High-Speed Internet
DocVM writes "A Nova Scotia farmer is opposing the construction of a microwave tower for fear it will eventually mutate his organic garlic crop.
Lenny Levine, who has been planting and harvesting garlic by hand on his Annapolis Valley land since the 1970s, is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated if EastLink builds a microwave tower for wireless high-speed internet access a few hundred meters from his farm."
Two things: the irradiation you are talking about is done after harvest, right? (Not that this farmer isn't being silly, the amount of radiation will be mostly harmless, and since the main reproductive and sustenance parts of garlic are under ground, his crop will have some shielding).
And DC being expendable? Usually you use the term "expendable" for a valuable resource that can be lost permanently for a short term advantage. That statement makes the assumption that we get some kind of value out of the folks in DC...
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
The problem with irradiating produce is that it destroys the nutrients in the produce. It also renders it non-living. Sure, it still looks the same, and that is the point they try to push in order to make this irradiation bs fly. But what is the point of eating fruits and veggies that are dead and devoid of nutrients? It would lead to mass malnutrition and many health problems over time (for those of us who actually do eat healthy and do not suffer from such health issues). Those who are susceptible to food borne illness (many of which actually come from factory farming of animals, not the produce itself), already have compromised immune systems, likely also due to lack of nutrition in the first place.