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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fugl" data-source="post: 1571576" data-attributes="member: 816">Speaking personally—as something of a skeptic here—I don’t require formal lab testing of hummingbirds before taking  the “red food coloring is bad for hummers” hypothesis as God’s truth, but would accept reasonably solid anecdotal evidence, at least on a tentative basis until something better came along.  But, as far as I can tell, there is no such evidence, none at all (except for vague statements about tumors on the bill which as far as I can tell no one—not even non-skeptics—seem to take seriously).  How come, if the red coloring is so harmful there have been no reports of sick (or dead or dying) hummingbirds around feeders?  Or maybe there have been such reports, & they just haven’t come to my attention for some reason?  If so, I world like to hear about them.  Believe it or not I have an open mind on the subject & am willing to be instructed.I understand that people feel strongly about the red food coloring & that something of a propaganda war is being waged against the nectar companies.  I have no problem with this as I don’t like the companies either, which in my view are exploiting ignorance to sell a useless product (I mean, welcome to the capitalist system!).  Finally, speaking personally again, I respond poorly to emotional language (“force feeding”, “dead hummingbirds” & the like) & am sorry that the discussion has started to go down that road.</blockquote>

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