Organic Food 101
By Tim KingLesson 4: Why should you eat it?
Our market and subsistence garden includes about two acres of vegetables, small fruits such as strawberries and raspberries, and a small orchard of apples, plums and blueberries. We raise these crops using organic principles but we're not certified organic.
We've been farming organically for seventeen seasons.
But we've been eating organically for nearly twice that long. We were urban consumers in the early and mid-1970s. Organic food was a little more expensive than food from industrial agriculture. But we made our decision. We'd eat organic.
We made our decision to eat organically nearly thirty years ago. After sixteen years of farming organically I know that decision was the right one. We grow enough food in our market garden to provide ourselves with fruit and vegetables. And in that small spot we produce plenty to provide others with the same. If we were better gardeners we could produce more.
As important to our production is the fact that our garden is a place full of wild things. There are bluebirds and field sparrows, monarch butterflies, many kinds of wasps and honey bees, frogs, snakes, and crickets. And there are, of course, things like slugs and caterpillars and beetles that eat our crops and weeds that try and crowd the crops out. We try and reach a balance and live with all of them. And each year we more or less succeed and there's a bountiful harvest for ourselves and our customers. Our garden lives because we refuse to attack it with herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and fumigants.
I don't think our decision is particularly unique. I think many people who buy and eat organic foods do so, at least in part, out of respect for other living things besides themselves.
In this lesson we'll review some of the reasons why organic foods are safer and more healthy for you. You'll hear from Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association as well as from the authors of Fatal Harvest and Is Our Food Safe. You'll also meet, however briefly, Dennis and Alex Avery from the Hudson Institute.
Eight Myths of Industrial Agriculture
Dennis and Alex Avery are a proponents of what the authors of Fatal Harvest call the seven myths of industrial agriculture.
The Averys', a father-son duo, work at the Hudson Institute. They've spent most of their careers promoting industrial agriculture and openly challenging organic agriculture. One of their recurrent themes is that organic foods cause food poisoning. Their primary solution to the rash of food poisoning out breaks in the last five to ten years is to irradiate food. Irradiation, a classical industrial attempt to fix a problem that is caused by industrial agriculture in the first place, is a dangerous and unproved technology. You can review some of the errors of irradiation by reading my article on it under the Food Safety topic at Suite101.com.
They are proponents of what the authors of Fatal Harvest call the seven myths of industrial agriculture. Irradiation is an aspect of one of those myths, they explain. The myths, as put forth by Fatal Harvest are:
- Myth One: Industrial Agriculture Will Feed the World.
- Myth Two: Industrial Food is Safe, Healthy, and Nutritious
- Myth Three: Industrial Food is Cheap
- Myth Four: Industrial Agriculture is Efficient
- Myth Five: Industrial Food Offers More Choices
- Myth Six: Industrial Agriculture Benefits the Environment and Wildlife
- Myth Seven: Biotechnology Will Solve the Problems of Industrial Agriculture
Dennis Avery, in an article discussed later in this lesson, lays forth an eighth myth: That organic food tends to be blemished and unattractive. This, one imagines, is due to the ravages of insects uncontrolled by insecticides. My own experience is completely the opposite. Although Greg Reynold, for example, does sell arugula with holes in it, his radishes are magnificent and unrivaled anywhere. On our farm we will not sell a green pepper with a blemish. And our strawberries are sought far and wide for their perfection and beauty.
We'll discuss the myths of industrial agriculture further in this section. The Fatal Harvest authors discuss, and discredit, each of them in their book which I encourage you to read.
Also, I urge you to review the Avery's web site. Theirs is the principle voice critiquing organic agriculture and the media often turn to them for comment. As I write, their top story is a rather belated criticism of the Soil Association's study discussed in section one of this lesson. There are numerous references to the danger of manure on organic produce and a false assertion, discussed in the Myths section of Fatal Harvest, that organic agriculture is less productive than industrial agriculture. I encourage you to read carefully what the Averys say and then look beyond their, and my, assertions for your answers. Beware: The Averys pull no punches in their critique of those they disagree with. Here's a paragraph from an article cited in the bibliography of this section:
"But the EPA has never bound itself to scientific reality. From acid rain and asbestos to second-hand tobacco smoke, the agency has clearly demonstrated a preference for hysteria over objective science."
Read carefully, research, and reach your own conclusions. I'd enjoy discussing them with you. The Averys can be found at: http://www.cgfi.com/
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