Wal-mart, the nation’s largest grocer, says they are going to increase their organic product offerings. As organics go mainstream there is a debate raging among organic farmers as to what it really means to be organic. Is it what the USDA says is organic, or is it really something more?
Correspondent John Ridley reports.
- Locavores, helping Bay Area residents get more locally grown and produced foods in their diet.
- UCSC’s Currents Newspaper, article on Julie Guthman’s book “Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California”
- Chapter One of “Agrarian Dreams”, by Julie Guthman
- Earthbound Farm, the nation’s largest grower of organic produce
- California Certified Organic Farmers, a trade association of California Organic growers
- Marin Organic, association of organic producers in Marin County
- Organic Farming Research Foundation, non-profit organization that works to improve organic farming practices
- U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program
- Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”
December 17th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
I was pleased that the program on organic farming, “Corporate Greens,” was followed by the interview with Dr. Swartzberg and his clear statement that there is no evidence for a health benefit for organic foods. This is more sense than one normally finds in press coverage of the organic movement.
However, the very basis of the organic food movement ought to be critically examined in stories like this. It is based on a fallacy: namely, the notion that Mother Nature provides us with a “chemical-free” environment that is intrinsically safe and which we pollute with “chemicals” at our peril. I have a Ph.D. in chemistry and recognize that this is nonsense. But you would not have to present Ph.D. level material to present a clear and scientifically accurate picture. Anyone who did not sleep through 8th grade science class should know that (1) all matter on earth is made of the chemical elements and (2) the properties of any substance depend on the elements it contains and its molecular structure. Its origin, whether natural or synthetic, is completely - repeat, completely - irrelevant.
I have two suggestions. First, include scientific critiques of the organic philosophy in your list of further references. By doing a brief web search I found the American Council on Science and Health, which had some good material. See:
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.580/healthissue_detail.asp
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.249/news_detail.asp
Second, do another program in which you challenge the popular view that organic farming is an unmitigated good. This might be “politically incorrect,” but would be scientifically sound.