Well Wade, another thing to consider. You live in Iowa. I live in a crowded part of California. The last thing I want are more people here.

I see first hand what being overcrowded does. Iowa's got room to grow. They're building suburbs over prime farm land out here (which is stupid).

Believe me, I totally see where you're going with the pesticides. Yes, with pesticides you can provide more food for cheaper. No argument. I do think however you understate the side effects.

The fish, some of which have been around since the dinosaur times (those ugly fish, forgot what they're called but they give you caviar), are disappearing. Imagine, a fish that's so adaptable that it's lived for 100 million years is now in Threatened status and it's only going to get worse. The culprit? Pesticides from farm runoff.

I don't think government is the problem in this case. Malthus is right. We just kept thwarting him. It's like Death will eventually catch you. You can do things to hide from Death, but he'll eventually get you. Same thing with Malthus.

Research desertification. Also note the cause of why most Endangered animals are Endangered. Reason? Habitat loss, i.e., too many people.

Now, we can always go into space and find another planet to occupy. We can also start using birth control and live within our means as a species.

Even the water solution you propose is a good idea in small doses but we're already finding the bad sides of desalination. Take a guess what it does.

Heh. I like disagreeing with you. You're very rational and hard to keep up with (that's a compliment, by the way). 🙂

---

Zombie - when doing a cost analysis of organic vs. non-organic foods we must include the costs of the effects of eating such food (i.e. medical bills). If buying organic is healthier then ideally one would have less medical expenses. In the end organic food may be cheaper because there are less expenses after the fact, but you pay for it up front.

This is very much like the Mac vs. Windows PC argument. Macs cost more up front, but require far less maintenance thus a reduced total cost of ownership so the argument goes.

---

Yeah. I guess the increased chance of cancer would be pretty expensive.

Excellent point.

---

Well, I have to admit I'd love to go to another planet.

I don't know how to get individual photos from this web page, so I'm just pasting the link 

---

Oh yes, and Iowa could be an argument in your favor for "overpopulation" -- the ratio of pinheads to non-pinheads is incredible.

---

Wow. A whole genre of bad movies I need to experience.

Oh, you may have pinheads, but we're full of flakes here. Californians are probably the most irresponsible people in America. Take any commitment made by a Californian with a grain of salt and pencil in dates with erasable ink.

---