The boiling frog principle

Supposedly, if a frog is put into very hot or boiling water, its first response is to try to escape by leaping out. Not surprising, really.

Again supposedly, if the frog is put into water at a comfortable temperature for the frog and then the temperature is slowly raised, the frog is less likely to notice the temperature change.

Go to the home page: OrganicExchange.com.au for more grazing & farming info you can walk out & use
Site conditions
No body represents this as:
free from omissions
free from errors
suitable for your use
nor as advice.
Your situation is different from anyone else's. Make informed decisions and if necessary get advice

As a result it is more likely to stay in the water and perhaps be cooked alive. The frog will die well before the water is boiled because the frog will reach a critical temperature and suffer enough damage to prevent major organs functioning.

At a physical level, this does not apply to humans and other warm-blooded animals. It can only work with animals that are not warm-blooded, such as reptiles and amphibians.

However, at an emotional level, this principle also applies to us humans. Because we are immersed in our culture and whatever is happening around us, we tend not to notice a lot of the change that is happening.

For example, you may not notice how tall your children grow over a year because it has been happening slowly and imperceptibly. When a relative or friend comes to visit they notice a big change since the last time they saw them a year before.

Something similar has been happening with

our attitudes to chemicals
changes in agriculture

In our modern and very cautious age, this probably needs a warning saying:
"Don't try this at home!"
So please don't try it, but accept the principle that is embodied in it. I haven't done it, so I can't vouch for its accuracy and I don't need to try it because it is here to illustrate a principle.

changes in our social environment such as

changes in world trade agreements and patterns
political shifts
changes in family structures with more women heading up households with one adult and one or more children

changes in our physical environment.

Sometimes we need to step outside a situation to get a different perspective to realize just how much things have changed.

Keeping track of gradual changes is easiest with a system or method such as:

recorded measurements, such as written or computerized records of
- yields
- income
- costs
- inputs used
- grazing history of each field
- cropping history of each field
a photographic record
a series of journal entries over time. This may include all those miscellaneous comments - things you have noticed that by themselves may not mean much, but over the years may add up to something significant
external reference points including
- a benchmark, usually external to what you are measuring
- news from the external world via websites, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV
- market prices
- shifts in demand for various commodities

The key is to keep the records somewhere other than just in memory. This is because our memory is dynamic and has a habit of following the boiling frog principle.

If you would like to contact us, please use this link.

If you are looking at a printed version of this page and you would like to visit it on the internet and get a stack of other info that may assist you, the full web address is
http://www.OrganicExchange.com.au/all/fx300185.htm

All material on this website is copyright 2007 Michael Burlace, The Organic Exchange Pty Ltd and others as shown. Material on this website may be downloaded and printed for your personal use only.

FarmRef and Organic Exchange are registered trademarks and Info you can walk out & use is a trademark of Michael Burlace.

This page was updated on December 27, 2007