[Avodah] insects in our food

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 04:02:56PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
: Put it this way: the big bugs had to be eating *something*.  If they
: didn't starve to death, then the population of smaller bugs *must*
: have been smaller than it would otherwise be.

: PS: I'm obviously talking about bugs that are not vegetarian...

The speculative aspect is that the pesticides can't be so narrowly focused
that /none/ of the littler bugs are killed. They must be biologically
similar enough for some effect on them too, at least with some/most
pesticides. Which effect is greater -- the better survival because of
a lack of preditors, or the deaths due to pesticides (even though they
aren't the target of those pesticides.

I was just interested in breaking the assumption that what we see today
was what our ancestors considered ignorable levels. Without the
assumption, there is room for a new pesaq.

A lack of certainty is sufficient to make my point.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man can aspire to spiritual-moral greatness
micha at aishdas.org        which is seldom fully achieved and easily lost
http://www.aishdas.org   again. Fullfillment lies not in a final goal,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but in an eternal striving for perfection. -RSRH