[Market-farming] Organic vs conventional agriculture production
STEVE GILMAN
stevegilman at verizon.net
Tue Sep 11 13:32:28 EDT 2007
Hi All,
This is a hearty second to Steve Diver's post about Dennis Avery.
But I'd say Steve is being charitable...
Honest dissent, pointing out flaws and proffering authentic
alternative points of view are very valuable -- they make you all the
stronger and better for dealing with them. But Dennis Avery (and son
Alex who has followed in the family business) are employed as anti-
organic P.R. hatchetmen propagandists, pure and simple in an
inherently dishonest enterprise. As we've seen in the tactics of the
Climate Change naysayers, all you really have to do is (1) cast doubt
using mixtures of a little truth and a lot of falsehoods, (2.) hijack
the debate by moving its frame of reference into unverified polemical
territory and (3.) claim some sort of scientific/moral/expert high
ground. Oh, and (4) get paid for doing so... Thanks to a worldwide
open and honest scientific inquiry, the Climate Deniers don't have
much standing anymore, but in the case of the Avery's they still have
the Organic Disinformation field to themselves, until a Jim Riddle
takes the time from positive endeavors to shovel through their manure
and present the truth.
The Avery's employer is the Hudson Institute, a longtime extreme
rightest "think-tank" that at one time boasted former Vice President
(under Reagan) Dan Quayle as a Board Member. Year's back they
proudly published a huge list of their corporate supporters, which in
the ag sector read like an Agribusiness Who's Who. They've since
learned to keep this list to themselves to avoid the charges of
blantent conflict of interest, but according to Sourcewatch.com they
and their wire services like Bridge News are still backed by the same
major players.
Why? Because Organic is extremely threatening to the highly
subsidized Agribusiness input establishment. With comparable yields
and a host of other beneficent environmental and nutritional studies
to back it up (see the Organic Center, www.organic-center.org as well
as Rivka's citations) the question is: why would clear-thinking
citizens choose a highly toxic industrial method to produce our daily
food and fiber in a way that continuously erodes our soil; pollutes
our air and water and creates ocean deadzones; is totally dependent
on petrochemicals (the US is now a net importer of N fertilizer); is
a major generator of greenhouse gases (including nitrous oxide from
chemical fertilizers which is 300 times more virulent per pound than
carbon dioxide); continually puts small scale farmers, ranchers and
producers out of business through Farm Bill policy and subsidies and
ETC???
The answer comes down to the vested interests doing everything in
their economic and political power they possibly can to keep the
questions from being asked to begin with...
I met Dennis Avery a number of years ago when he was hired by nearby
Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY to speak to various
environmental and economics classes, along with a lecture open to the
public. I scrounged around ahead of time and printed up 50 packets of
articles and research papers that directly countered what he had been
putting into print and handed them out at the door. When Dennis
walked in I handed a packet to him, too and introduced myself as a
local organic farmer. I also remarked good-naturedly that I was
amazed to find that he didn't have horns. He was nice about it,
saying he could understand why I might think so. There was an
opportunity at the end of his lecture for people to come to the
microphone and when I called a number of his assertions into question
he weasled out and sloughed them off as a difference in opinion.
The funny thing about all this is the Agribuiz Corporations really
aren't getting very much for their money. The Avery's (and their ilk)
really aren't very clever -- and their multi-layered disinformation
pronouncements don't ring true, even to eaters who don't know much
about the issues in question. The True Believers in the Choir lap it
up, however, wildly saluting anything and everything hauled up the
flagpole -- so I guess that's what it's really all about. No matter.
Ecological Reality trumps Corporate Dishonesty every time. Of course,
in the context of our warming planet -- how much time to we have?
Steve
Ruckytucks Farm
On Sep 11, 2007, at 12:00 PM, market-farming-
request at lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:27:39 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Steve Diver <steved at ipa.net>
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Organic vs conventional agriculture
> production
> To: Market Farming <market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
> <1621203.1189448860068.JavaMail.root at mswamui-
> blood.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Thanks, Bill.
>
> Illinois growers are fortunate to have you working up there.
>
> Ya'll keep in mind that Avery knows exactly what he's doing.
>
> It's no mistake of misperception on his part. He employs
> advanced media manipulation with spin and smoke to advance
> the cause of corporate agriculture.
>
> The Hudson Institute is a well oiled machine, paid handsomely.
>
> Steve Diver
>
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