Twice

(Somewhere on the Earth. Not too long ago.)

One day, a farmer was summoned to the house of his landlord.

"What's the matter, Sir?"

"Look, there's a situation here," the rich man said with an emotionless face, "There are more and more people living in the city, and, since I have monopolized the field, they all need my wheat for bread. Go and grow more wheat for me. I shall pay for it."

The farmer wished to say he is merely a subcontractor and all money went to the officials hidden in the castle. But he swallowed these words back to his throat - his limited common sense told him that the corpulent figure in front of him would not be able to understand. After all, that's not the critical problem. He decided to say something else.

"Sir, each and every inch of the field has wheat growing already - and we are using the best of all available technology."

"Yes, I know, but, instead of growing the wheat once each year, why don't you do it twice and double the yield?"

Leak

After a moment of silence, the man from Massachusetts said, "Although I think the black and white is quite clear in this case, there may not be any need to consider justice and, for the benefit of our country, we may have to consider removing Barack from the White House."

"Why?" All the other three jumped up and asked.

"My worry is: What would the Texas people do if Barack continues to be the President?" M asked.

"Do you mean they would go around and bad-mouth him?" F looked puzzled, "They soil their own hands and won't look good either."

"I mean, how about declaring independence?" M pushed forward.

"Are you serious?" C almost dropped his coffee cup.

"Yes and no, but that's the idea: Texas is no longer a state of USA - whose president comes from Texas!" M looked stern, "My real worry is: You don't really need to use your name to bad-mouth someone; incriminating information may be purposefully leaked to the media. That's the last thing American people want to see."

The table lapsed into silence again. After all, Senates can do very little on this matter.

Keep

"The eternal problem of democracy: When a policy - or a person - badly jeopardizes the benefit of a small group but benefit slightly the majority, the policy would pass - and the person wins the election." the man from Massachusetts sighed, "The bitter truth that I find unpalatable is, this system provides an excellent opportunity for a tyrant to whip off his adversaries one after another!"

"You don't have to dwell too much on theoretical sociology," C put up a tone of matter-of-the-fact, "Barack may not be a good person, but the gang from Houston who kicked him out of the City Hall are no harmless ordinary citizens either. To say the least, their anger blinds their eyes, so that they made accusation personal. Any onlooker would think the blame is on both sides."

"Very true," the man from Florida nodded, "In fact I'd almost come to the conclusion that Barack is the victim of a political struggle - if Arnold is not one of the men going against our President."

(Arnold - a highly respected man with an unassailable record - is the governor of Texas.)

"And, now, the Texas people are nowhere." C went on, "From the country point of view, there are good reasons to keep the President for at least one more term. To put it simply, it doesn't look good if the United States has to change its President that quickly."

Vote

(The dinner continued.)

"Barack will stay in the White House, I'm sure," F remarked.

"Why?" W was incredulous.

"You know, the unwritten rule is our President would serve at least two terms unless he does something really wrong to the whole country." the man from Massachusetts explained.

"And, the catch is, he only ill-treats the Texas people," F added, "To the other States, the President is a harmless creature. People may have heard of his wrongdoings, but none of them outside Texas have the personal experience. When we vote, we ask ourselves: Is this man fulfilling his duty for the country? And we have to say yes. True, he is not brilliant; in a sense he just sits there and does very little - except taking care of his private matters. But he is not intrusive to the administration of the others and we have all the freedom to run our own State. Many a time he also gives a little help here or there. Yes, we all know he is nasty to his own people - but, thank goodness, we are not his own people!"

"We must remember what Martin Niemöller said," C murmured,
     "First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
      Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
      Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
      Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
      Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
      Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."

The rest of the table became silent.

President

(Dinner after a meeting of the United States Congress, 2113.)

"Barack is hopeless," F, Senate of Florida, a slim man with skinhead, sighed. Unfortunately, this Barack refers to the President.

"Very true. Not a good man." C nodded. He, a corpulent man with much grey hair, is a Senate of California.

"Alas! Just see how he treats his people in Texas - the very State that he comes from. He grabs all the money, fires the two House representatives for personal reasons, and do whatever he likes in Houston. He should really be called the King of the Harris County!" The man from Florida went on.

"But, what could the Texas people do?" W asked from the other side of the dinner table. She is a seductive woman below 50 - a Senate of Wisconsin.

"All they did was charging him for smoking in the City Hall and kicking him out from there. He remains the President." M, a white-face man with a hook-like nose sitting next to her, interrupted. He is a Senate of Massachusetts.

"And a very resilient one too," F put up a bitter smile, "I must say most of us would resign if we find so many people are against us - but this man is different. He just sticks to his chair and smile to his adversaries."

"But it's coming to the end of his term. Would he lose the next election?" W asked.

To her surprise, the other three men all shook their heads.

Study

My recent leisure reading is The Evernote Bible by Brandon Collins.

Some of my friends may notice this one actually jumps the queue amongst the list of books that I plan to read, and it is really no leisure reading what-so-ever.

It is, in essence, the advanced user manual of Evernote, the program that I regularly use for organizing information - things to do, contacts, meeting notes, literature search, and what not. Contrary to the usual belief, the program does not store each and every piece of notes in a highly organized tree-like architecture (like DOS, Windows, or Mac). Yes, there are notebooks and tags, but nothing more. The filing system is loose and deliberately chaotic. The edge is, it has a search function as good as any, and you can always find the notes you want to refer to with a few clicks.

You may ask: If I am satisfied with what I could do with the program, why should I bother to read the manual?

Well, as John Barrow says:
An amateur studies what he likes.
A professional also studies what he doesn't like.

Goat

During the Chinese New Year holiday, I watched the movie Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 5 (喜羊羊與灰太狼大電影5).

Obviously I chose this one for the benefit of Euterpe and Adler (otherwise my pick would be Cloud Atlas), and my princesses did had an enjoyable 90 minutes. How do I find this cartoon from the crooked universe? Vivian wrote that much on her Facebook:

The worst crap in the history of motion picture.

And my wife did not exaggerate. The two of us were disappointed because we did have some hope. Three years ago when we watched part two of this series (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2010/03/wolf.html), it was amazingly good. There was no high-tech virtual reality or 3D effect, but, in my own jargon, the producer did tell a coherent story. Now, three years later, there is a quantum jump in how they could tell a story, but an equally drastic regression in what story they are telling.

As what we hear from the usual sayings: They are so poor that they only have money - and they are so primitive that they only use technology.

窮得只剩下錢，
原始得只使用科技。

Space

(Accreditation report from an extraterrestrial.)

Analysis Report criterion #389965026819938

Priority action items:

The guidelines for medical officers writing in the health record should be... such that empty lines or gaps should not be left between or within entries in the written notes. This should be audited for all clinical disciplines. 

*********************

(Suggested response report from a malacious nephrologist.)

Dear all,

In order to comply with the priority action items recommended by our friends outside the solar system and to go one step further, our hospital will disable the space bar and the "Enter" button of all computer keyboards with immediate effect.

After all, Augustus did not need the concept of zero to build the Roman Empire.

Sincerely, et cetera.

Simulation

To me, the most remarkable story outlined by John Barrow is Living in Simulation.

The idea is simple. If we follow the modern idea of quantum physics, there are many possible universes. The inevitable consequence is civilisations with far more advanced technology than ourselves should exist, and they have the capability of simulating universes. In other words, they can study the formation of galaxies and watch the evolution of life in vivo. And, within these simulated universes, self-conscious entities (for example, René Descartes) can emerge and consider the meaning of their own life.

The question is, therefore, are we existing in a simulated reality rather than a real one?

Sounds familiar, eh? You did watch Matrix, didn't you? In fact, I have also outlined a similar story previously in this site. (Go read http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2010/05/being.html) The annoying bit is, many scientists argue that it is highly likely that we are living in a simulated reality, basically because there should be far more simulated universes than real ones.

How could we tell?

John Barrow outlines a method in the book.

PS. I must say, as an admirer of David Hume, I am not convinced with the answer provided - there are so many "glitches" that we encounter in the nature.

You would know what I mean if you have read this book.

Maths

My recent leisure reading is 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know by John Barrow.

The author is a professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge University, and the book is about mathematical principles behind many common (but largely neglected) things we encounter in daily life, from geometry to statistics, from how a bar code is constructed to the difference between an A4 and a letter-size paper.

How do I find this book?

My decision is simple: I shall keep it for my future reference, and I am sure I will look up other books by the same author. Frequent visitors of this site would know very well I am a fan of Baruch Spinoza, and I believe mathematics is the purest form of philosophy. There could be a universe with a different set of rule for physics, but I cannot imagine God could create a place where the rules and constants of mathematics do not apply – because these are actually intrinsic attributes of our Lord.

We call it pantheism.

Greedy

A few days later, I had another opportunity to dine with another group of consultants who help teaching our final year students. Since many of them are also holding important administrative positions in the Hospital Authority and are involved in the employment interview, it seems natural they all agreed it’s difficult to recruit new trainees.

“We shouldn’t worry that much.” One of them said, “Both medical schools just increased their quota. A few years later we shall see many more graduates and there will be no need to worry about shortage of manpower.”

“Very true, especially when youngsters realize after the financial tsunami that banking are not all that easy to make big money,” another consultant nodded, “When I talk to my friends who teach finance or business in both universities, they all agree that it is now very difficult for their faculty to recruit good secondary school graduates. Young people now seems to appreciate once again there is a good prospect to choose the second oldest occupation in the history!”

“From the point of view of our healthcare system, it sounds good news. We shall have more top students becoming doctors in the future.” A few of us concluded at the same time.

“Not necessarily,” LY – our professor of hepatology – smiled, “It may simply mean that there will be a large number of greedy people, who should go for finance and business, end up doing medicine!”

I was horrified.

Absentees

(Our dinner discussion went on.)

“Don’t get us wrong. We do not want to be a nanny department. In fact, we are not interested in students who do not turn up once or twice in a rotation. All we want to pick up are the few who skip all the lessons – they are usually the marginal or problematic ones who need some help.” The man from Jupiter explained.

“But what would you do when you pick up these outliers?” A consultant asked.

“There are proper channels of helping them. Em… I mean, we have the associate dean for student affairs and another associate dean for education. Problematic students should be referred to them for counseling and assistance.” I gave the official answer. (The difference between the two associate deans, in terms of their function and types of help that they offer, is another story.)

“In addition, I shall try my best to meet these recurrent absentees in their clinical examination,” AK added.

I chuckled; everyone else raised their eyebrows.

                                                        

“In fact, I make this point very clearly to the students,” the professor of endocrinology explained, “There are high-flyers who could study on their own. However, if someone does not appear in all bedside teaching, we have no way to tell whether he is that outstanding. For that reason I must see him and have a proper, fair, unbiased, thorough, and complete examination.”

I believe she meant an autopsy.

Attendance

Shortly before the Chinese New Year, I was summoned to a dinner with representatives from other peripheral hospitals that take part in the teaching of our third year medical students.

I shall not tell you what we discussed. Nonetheless, one topic that repeatedly appeared amongst our own colleagues was brought up again by a consultant from another hospital:

Should we take the student attendance for our teaching?

Of course there are pros and cons. Some argue our student are (chronologically, at least) adults and we should let them vote by their feet. Others believe it is a good way to monitor their progress and ensure they have sufficient clinical exposure.

When this very topic was brought up again on the dinner table, I must say I had little interest because it seemed certain that the whole argument of both sides would appear again and no conclusion would be reached.

But I was (happily) wrong. A physician from another hospital said, “I don’t see any reason not taking the attendance – we are doing the same for all students from the other medical school since the last millennium!”

Alas, this is the rare occasion that I think it is a good idea to follow the practice of our friends from the other side of the harbor.

Extrapolate

Although inducing a false sense of feeling what the others feel is a real problem, I must say I do not consider it an important one. To say the least, it is not what I meant by illusion.

My concern is simple: Even if one could have exactly the same feeling with our patients by sharing the same kind of life experience, there are so many different types of life experience that you cannot (and you certainly don’t want to) try each and every one of them.

“But, if we have the life experience of how it feels with one type of disease, we shall better appreciate the suffering of other patients with different problems.” You may argue.

Alas! Do you mean you could extrapolate your own feeling with one type of disease to others with entirely different conditions? (For example, in the student project that I mentioned yesterday, do you think staying in a wheelchair for a week would help you understand the difficulty faced by a blind person?)

“Oh, you are picking bones from an egg. I think if we have the experience of taking the role of a patient, we shall be more humble and will try to put more effort to address their concern.” I believe you would protest.

Well, in that case (which I fully agree), you don’t really need another round of experience and fall sick again – I’m sure you should have sufficient experience after living to this age (unless, of course, you did not learn any lesson from your past).

That’s what I meant by illusion.

Illusion

You may argue despite of all the problems, it remains a good idea to gain some real-life experience and try to feel what our patients feel. (It is exactly for this argument that until very lately, one of the special elective projects of our first year medical student was to put on a leg cast and stay on a wheelchair for a week – just to experience what a patient with leg fracture feels.)

On this, for a third time, I beg to disagree.

For, although sympathy – or, in our context, considering the need and benefit of others – is an objective action, empathy – in this case, feel what our patients feel – is an illusion. The simple explanation is what I mentioned yesterday: No two persons would feel the same even if they share the same experience. As Hercule Poirot teased Arthur Hastings in Murder on the Links: We saw the same things. Shouldn’t we arrive at the same conclusion?

Of course not.

And, in our case, the fault is similar to mistaking a murderer as a goddess. By having the same life experience as our patients, we are convinced we know their feelings.

We will be playing god.

But, there is a more important (and obvious) reason.

Involved

You may say it's just a game of words, and I was making a fuss for nothing. After all, being able to share how our patients feel (that is, to empathize) is a good way to let us know how best to take care of their overall well-being (that is, to sympathize).

On that, once again, I beg to disagree.

The reasons are obvious. First, our sense of empathy may not be accurate. By definition, only the Big Brother knows every feeling of a person - and I hope you don't want to join and become someone behind the Telescreen.

But, more importantly, being too involved in another person's emotion may do no good to either party. Not only would the two sides fall into a positive reinforcement cycle and cannot get out of their grievance and resentment, being too sensitive to the emotions of others would almost always bias our professional judgement.

Unfortunately, the contemporary irony is, many a time our system rewards the ones who sympathize, or simply empathize, rather than those who really offer an unbiased professional opinion. Although it was Sherlock Holmes who solved the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Henry was certainly more thankful to Dr. Watson.

Feel

On a recent occasion, TM – a trainee of my team – fell sick. Although he did suffer a lot during those few days, the experience is not entirely a bitter one. After he recovered, he found himself beginning to understand his patients' feeling and treat them in slightly different ways. In this regard, my friend KM went on and described his opinion about this little comedy. (See http://drkmchow.blogspot.hk/2013/02/sick.html)

But, I must say I cannot support the idea wholeheartedly.

Oh, don't say I am too mean and ungiving. (I am.) 

First, to begin with, let's try and distinguish the difference between empathy and sympathy. In short, empathy is the capacity of understanding and sharing of a specific emotional state experienced by another person. On the other hand, sympathy does not require the sharing of the same emotional state; it is the concern for the well-being of another. Although sympathy may begin with empathizing with the same emotion another person is feeling, it is not always the case - and it is not necessary to be the case.

Or, in the language of logic, empathy is neither a necessary condition nor a sufficient one for sympathy.

傷明

A piece of Chinese literature that keeps coming up to my mind recently is the Chu Shi Biao《出師表》of Zhugu Liang (諸葛亮).

恐托付不效，以傷先帝之明。

This little phrase is not easy to be translated. Nonetheless, the idea is simple: It is a taboo to say a leader is shit if the previous one was a giant – because it implies that the great person who used to hold this post did not quite find the right successor.

On the other hand, if that great person is still around, he will never agree his successor is horrible - for the blame and responsibility would always go back to the one who chose such a bad leader.

嗚呼， 教主文成武德，仁義英明，澤被蒼生，算無遺策，千秋萬世，一統江湖！

揮春

Shortly before the Chinese New Year holiday, Euterpe’s kindergarten asked all her K3 students to take turn and write red banners (揮春) – all of which were sold for fund raising of some philanthropic purpose.

I was fortunate enough to join the event on one morning. Rather than telling you how happy I was, let me show you two pieces that my princess writes.

Kung Hei Fat Choi !

往復書簡

Shortly before the Chinese New Year holiday, I received a small present from a private patient of mine. The letter was written in traditional Chinese – an art long lost in the electronic era.

As you expect, I could not resist the temptation of replying. Here are our communications:

***********************
司徒卓俊醫生惠鑑：

碌碌奔馳，久疏函候，尚祈見諒。際此陽春瑞日，謹奉寸箋致候，並賀新春迪吉，萬事勝意，身體健康。

隨函謹奉上利是封兩套，以聊效獻芹之意，尚祈笑納。並頌

春祺

XXX謹上

***********************
XXX先生台覽：

夙承雅愛，紉感殊深，頃間又蒙惠贈紅封二套，恐卻之反為不恭，是以嘉貺之來，謹照拜領。唯念先生有瓊瑤之投，而愚無木瓜之報，未免靦然有愧耳。是以聊走數行，值此三陽開泰之時，正四序履端之始，恭維嘉祉與韶光並茂，洪祥偕歲序俱臻，引企芝輝，彌殷葵向，是所欣幸。耑肅。順請

春祺

司徒卓俊謹賀

團年

(續昨)

再上是內蒙古烤牛羊串。此品肉質鮮嫩，調味卻極濃重。誠然好之者佳餚，而厭之者棄屐，見仁見智矣。

接著是茶燻鴨。此乃老式樟茶鴨演變而來。這裡用中鴨，去骨留皮，先蒸後燻，香而入味，技巧上是成功的改動。

蔬菜是豆板棠菜苗。此即上湯煮蠶豆及小棠菜苗也。湯味清鮮，蠶豆粉糯，而菜苗脆嫩，剎是不錯。

單尾是砂窩菜飯。此物雖無名貴配料，然而炒得棵粒分明而油香四溢，功夫甚為到家。

最後是驢打滾。此為老派京式甜品，實即糯米豆沙卷沾糖粉而吃，作法不繁。不知何故，本地京川滬揚店子卻少有供應。大抵少吃，此店確做得綿密而不過甜，水準甚高。

總的來說，此餐吃得十分頰意，服務亦殷致有禮。較之傳統京式館子，此處菜式頗多改良更迭，自成一家，大有藍海策略之風。埋單是不便宜，郤也不過半山豪宅數寸之地。吾等但求討個吉利，別無他想矣。

東來順

癸巳將至，於尖沙咀東來順團年。此處屢為吾友譚教授所推崇，卻也無緣識荊，便乘此機會，舉家而試。

一如以往，菜式為區區所定。前菜淮揚四味，計為燻蛋、烤麩、鹽水鴨、及麻香鮑片。燻蛋茶香馥郁，火候剛好而黃仍流心。上面加了少許瑤柱絲提味，倒是聰明的改動。

其餘幾味，烤麩用切，調味略甜，席上小孩卻甚喜歡。鹽水鴨入味而不過鹹，猶有肉香，剎是不錯。麻香鮑片卻甚濃烈，麻辣兼具，鮑魚鮮味便不甚了了，略為失色。

湯品是鮑魚花膠燉鹿筋。巨盅上桌，單是湯料已然一大碟。而店家仔細，湯料碟亦刻意安排，鮑魚花膠舖面而赤肉豬骨塾底，值得一讚。此湯火候固足，濃鮮而膠質丰盈，可稱傑作。

主食先上鶴湖蟹影，即蟹粉舖於炸鍋巴上，伴以蟹形薑糖啫喱。此實傳統蟹粉食際變奏，平心而論，此品食味，與平常作法分別不大，然雕琢而上，聲勢懾人，頗能博席上諸君一粲。

Sentiment

“Your comment may be correct, but I don’t think the new CEO should be blamed. Once again, he just takes up the post for a few weeks!” I tried to explain.

“True, but you miss the point,” L seemed unmoved, “You know, in the eyes of that CEO, all sentiment of those new customers is because they believe they could almost afford advertising in the more established channel, but, because of one trivial reason or another, they could only get the second-rate offer!”

“I see what you mean. The sentiment may be genuine, but it should never be the view of the CEO.”

“Exactly. Jean Valjean could well complain his parents for not leaving him a good fortune – but that’s not an excuse for nihilism.” L remarked, looking grim.

“My friend, it’s easy to say don’t do this and that. Come on, in your opinion, what strategy should this CEO take?”

“Alas, I’m no business people. There are of course blue ocean strategies – if you could find any. My limited knowledge on Michael Porter also states that the CEO can look for an edge and develop a distinct market position. My own humble opinion is, even if no winning strategy could be adopted, they could still focus on their production and treat their customers well. Many a time it’s not about winning a competition, but thriving and prospering with respect and dignity. If you are in a race and you come at the second place, all you could see is the winner’s back. But, if you take it as jogging at your own pace, you could appreciate the beauty of the road!”

Customer

(My conversation with L continued.)

“What do you mean?” I asked – alarmed.

“Just consider if you are the boss – or a senior manager – of the second-rate channel, and you want to attract more advertisement, what would you do? The logical ways are to work harder to promote yourself amongst potential customers and carefully plan your packages so that they would appear to have an edge over your competitor.”

“There isn’t much promotion activity, I know,” I nodded again, “In fact, their web site is so poorly designed and deficient in substance that it is probably repelling to potential customers. But, I don’t think it’s the fault of its CEO – who just takes up the post for a few weeks.”

“True, but I consider the lack of promotion a minor problem.”

“Then, what is important?”

“As always, it should be the content of what you offer to the customers. You know, the content of our second-rate channel is so bad and poorly organized that all new customers believe they have their time wasted and are simply being neglected. The situation looks particularly bad when they find that new customers to the better established channel have their package carefully organized, and their time and money are well spent!”

Second

Met L on a Saturday morning.

Contrary to the usual, my friend was not in a hurry – and neither was I. After a casual exchange of hello, I noted that he was reading some weekly magazine.

“Alas, it’s new to me you have a habit of reading sensational literature!” I smiled.

“Why not!?” L raised his eyebrow, “As Sherlock Holmes said, there’s nothing new under the sun. What you encounter in a medical school may also be observed in the business of entertainment.”

“Is it the case?”

“Absolutely. Let’s take our second-rate TV channel as the example. It is, by all definitions, losing its business, isn’t it?”

I was forced to nod, “Of course. There are many media nowadays. The  competition for advertisement is fierce. And, after all, if a company decides to go for advertising in TV, there are all the reasons to go for the bigger and more well-established channel.”

“What you said is true, but it doesn’t account for all the differences in business performance between the A and B channels…”

Reality

You may wonder what I was worrying about yesterday.

Well, my concern is simple: Real-life farming nowadays is very different from what we saw in the school outing. For example, let me pretend to be the great detective under S.S. van Dine and ask: How often do you see a real farm that keeps goats and rabbits and cows and pigs and so forth? Similarly, how often do we have grapes and eggplants and strawberries and papayas and potatoes and carrots and another two dozens kinds of crops - each and every one of them that we expect - from a single farm?

No, never - unless the place is carefully put up as a showcase. In a place that really makes a living by growing crops, it will inevitably focus on one or two types and do nothing else. This is the inevitable result of  division of labour, as predicted by Adam Smith.

The nature that we wish to see is nothing natural.

Farm

While I was considering the (lack of) benefit of organic farming, Vivian and I joined the school outing of Adler’s kindergarten.

Alas, we visited a local farm.

The place is closed to the border, and, although claimed to be a farm, it is really meant for family trip and school activities. There are some goats and bunnies for you to feed (with a charge on the grass and carrot, of course). Various types of plants were grown here and there. Some short classes are scheduled throughout the day if you wish to have some hand-on experience of farming. For the children, there are some games and facilities to play as well.

Neither Euterpe nor Adler is very interested in games, and we spent much of the time seeing rather than doing things. I must say I was initially impressed by the fine collection of agricultural product and livestock put up by the farm, and it seems really a good to let our children have more exposure to the nature and cultivate their interest in protecting the environment. But, on reflection, I began to think of Philo Vance and wondered if I was seeing too perfect a demonstration.

Compensation

If you consider what I described in the past two days, you may even go one step further and conclude that organic farming is more damaging to the environment than the ordinary “inorganic” (or, toxic if you like) method.

The argument is simple: Organic farming is inherently less productive. To satisfy the stomach of every Homo sapiens, more land needs to be converted for agricultural usage – and more wild animals and exotic plants would lose their natural habitat.

But, do go that far. Let’s take a closer look on the evidence. Contrary to what we believe, organic farming is not substantially less productive than traditional methods – nothing more than 10 or 15 percent difference with up-to-the-date technology. Yes, it may take up a little more place, but the harm is offset by doing away with toxic chemicals.

And, if you turn the argument around, it is yet another example of risk compensation.

Go read Richens J, et al. Condoms and seat belts: the parallels and the lessons. Lancet 2000; 355: 400-403.