Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

from RKM

Original source URL:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=7&page=1&op=1

ORGANIC ATTACK: INTRODUCTION

While the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations
reports numerous environmental and health benefits from organic farming
practices, including reduced levels of contaminants in foods, a whole
series of press articles and radio and TV programmes around the world have
been reporting the exact opposite: that organic agriculture is actually
more risky than industrial agriculture. The items in the column below show
how these reports are part of an orchestrated campaign of disinformation
involving industry-backed proponents of GM and how they are grounded in
bogus research and a series of false claims.

The circulation of bogus research evidence critical of organic farming
hasn't been a phenomenon restricted to popular journalism. There has been a
concerted campaign of disinformation around the world with GM proponents
always to the fore.

In the UK senior academics have been involved in raising concerns about the
safety of  organic food (eg Ben Miflin, former head of the Institute of
Arable Crops Research, Prof Alan Gray of the Institute of Terrestial
Ecology and formerly head of ACRE, Prof John Hillman director of the
Scottish Crop Research Institute). Information critical of organic
agriculture has also been published in a booklet promoting GM food from the
Food and Drink Federation.

Such attacks have even appeared in articles in reputable science journals.
For example, in MUCH FOOD, MANY PROBLEMS (Nature 402, 231 [1999] -
18/11/99) by Prof Anthony Trewavas of the Institute of Cell and Molecular
Biology at the University of Edinburgh, there are repeated claims of
substantial problems. Yet the trail of evidence for such claims often leads
back to Dennis Avery, the man at the heart of the disinformation campaign
on organics.

The pieces opposite not only explain the bogus nature of the claims being
made but point to those, many linked directly or indirectly to a rightwing
network and a loose coalition of 'think-tanks' supported by agribiz and the
biotech corporations, who have been supporting the disinformation campaign.

What is revealing in all this, is the way in which senior academics have
apparently been happy to join in the disinformation process, thus lending
it credibility, by repeating and promoting such views without serious
critical scrutiny of the evidence on which they are based. This once again
points to the price we pay for science having become so industrially
aligned that it is more preoccupied with corporate interests than with
serving the public good. For more on this see: Prof Bullsh*t


More organic attacks in UK press
John Vidal, GUARDIAN (London),
Tuesday May 16, 2000

The Daily Mail has been doing some good muckraking. Yesterday, it led its
front page with a nine-month-old scientific report suggesting that lettuces
and sprouts grown to organic standards with the help of farmyard manure had
100 times more E coli cells than conventionally grown ones. Shock. Was not
E coli responsible for all those deaths in Lanarkshire? "The findings will
alarm millions who switched to organic foods following the BSE crisis and
concern over the safety of GM foods," said the Mail.

But should it? Is organic farming inherently more risky than conventional
farming, as a stream of articles and TV programmes in the past six months
on both sides of the Atlantic have suggested? Unhappily for the Mail, the
answer is no. E coli is one of the commonest microbiological organisms on
the planet. It is everywhere. On your coffee cup, your pencil, your hands,
in everybody's stomach.

The Daily Mail report glossed over the fact that the E coli found in the
organically grown lettuces was totally harmless and indeed rather welcome.
Without E coli and other micro organisms our immune system would be in
tatters. Indeed, it would have been far more surprising if the Atlanta
veggies did not show higher numbers of E coli cells. At least they were
being grown in biologically alive land.

But one strain of E coli - 0157 - can indeed be virulent and deadly, and
the Mail was quick to report that Tesco had recently withdrawn all its
organic mushrooms after a routine check by environmental health officers
found one with 0157. But not with the deadly strain known as 0157:H7. It
went on to say that the strain found in the Tesco mushroom was completely
harmless.

So where are all these organic scare stories coming from? What's new about
muck? As the Soil Association, which sets UK organic standards points out,
animal manure has been used for thousands of years as an essential
component to maintain the organic matter content, biological activity,
fertility and structural stability of agricultural soils. Moreover,
conventional UK farmers use about 80m tonnes of it a year as a fertiliser.
Just 9,000 tonnes goes on organic land and crops. So why the attacks on
organic foods and not conventional ones?

Enter the highly charged and politically motivated industry of
environmental "contrarianism". It questions accepted eco "truisms" which
suggest that global warming, holes in the ozone layer, large dams,
intensive farming, nuclear power and GM foods are major problems. However,
it frequently uses extremely selective scientific studies, funded by
industries with strong vested interests in keeping the status quo, to
rubbish governments and environmentalists. They are, variously, "negative",
"against progress", "luddite", "making the poor poorer" and "peddling bad
science".

The spate of recent "organic scare" stories probably started with Denis T
Avery, Director of Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, a rich and
powerful US free-market, pro-globalisation think tank funded, amongst
others, by chemical companies, agribusiness and biotech companies - all of
whom have taken a battering in the global GM furore.

In 1998, Avery published "The Hidden Dangers in Organic Food" in American
Outlook, a quarterly Hudson Institute publication. It began: "According to
recent data compiled by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), people
who eat organic and 'natural' foods are eight times as likely as the rest
of the population to be attacked by a deadly new strain of E coli bacteria
(0157:H7)."

The trouble was, the CDC denied ever having done the studies. But the
Hudson and its British counterparts such as the European Science and
Environment Forum, and the Institute of Economic Affairs, have been
peddling variations of the story to shock-hungry journalists, notably at
C4, Living Marxism, a BBC Counterblast programme, and even the Wall Street
Journal.

No one denies that farmyard manure carries dangerous pathogens. But not
even the most naive vegetarian would suggest that you should ignore
fundamental rules of hygiene like washing fruit and vegetables before
eating them, or cooking meat thoroughly.

-------

More organic attacks in UK press
An article by John Vidal in THE GUARDIAN (London)
THE GODFATHERS: who's behind organicised crime?

Excerpt from 'Organicised crime: The backlash against organic food has
begun. But who is behind it?', Andy Rowell's report on how a loose network
of rightwing think-tanks, supported by agribiz and the biotech
corporations, have worked together with GM-supporting scientists to slander
organic food.

Dennis Avery: Big Daddy of the E.co-lie!

Reports on the bogus research with which Dennis Avery has originated much
of the anti-organic propaganda in recent circulation, and how his work is
supported by Monsanto, DuPont, Novartis, ConAgra, DowElanco and others who
profit from the sale of products prohibited in organic production.

John Stossel slanders organic farming

Reports on how ABC News correspondent John Stossel misled viewers in a
report on "20/20" implying organic food was dangerous. Includes articles
from The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Nation.

Prof Trewavas requires a health warning

Reports on the media-war waged against organics by a scientist renowned for
his extreme, unsupported and unfounded assertions. Includes an article with
detailed criticism of a Trewavas' piece in Nature.

Lord Haskins: merchant of doom

According to Blair advisor Lord Haskins organic food is not only risky but
if organic farming were widely adopted it would lead to mass starvation!

Prof Hillman attacked for promoting bogus claims

How Professor John Hillman, director of the Scottish Crop Research
Institute (SCRI) used the SCRI's annual report and the media to promote
bogus smears against organic farming. Professor Hillman is on the Board of
Directors of the BioIndustry Association, whose tagline is "Encouraging and
Promoting the Biotechnology Sector of the UK Economy".

Sir John Krebbs slammed over organic food attacks

How Sir John Krebs and his supporters are using the UK Food Standards
Agency to promote the interests of the biotechnology industry.

Anti-Organic Industry Groups Smear for Profit

Exposing the industry groups behind 'Nomorescares.com' and its anti-organic
report 'Organic Industry Groups Spread Fear for Profit'

Rightwing clique behind organic attacks
Rebutting the myths: the ŒCouterblast¹ programme on BBC 2 TV

A Soil Association response to the propaganda attack of a Big Tobacco
funded rightwing clique

United Nations FAO report exposes anti-organic propaganda

A UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report concludes organic
practices actually reduce e-coli infection that causes food poisoning (the
exact opposite of GM proponents' bogus claims) and they also reduce the
levels of contaminants in foods. Among the FAO's other conclusions:

€  Organic agriculture contributes to cleaner drinking water and to
higher weed, insect and bird diversity

€  Organic farming enhances genetic biodiversity and helps recover
indigenous crop varieties

€  Organically produced foods have lower levels of pesticide and
veterinary drug residues

€  Organic milk is less contaminated
€  Organic farming is good for sustainable agriculture
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