Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

   "We actually have enough scientific evidence to know that modern organic 
farming is our best shot at long-term survival for all, so now it's time to 
unite and focus on what is most important."

Organic Food: Cutting Through The Confusion
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/06/cutting-through-the-organ_n_779392.html
Posted: 11- 6-10 10:02 AM
Maria Rodale is CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc., and the author of "Organic 
Manifesto."

As a third-generation insider and granddaughter of the original organic 
iconoclast, I've seen the evolution of the organic food industry happen in 
real time. Slow-motion real time. (My grandfather started Organic Gardening 
magazine in 1942 -- although truthfully, I wasn't born until 1962.) On 
October 13, 2010, the current leaders of the organic movement in America 
convened at the Fourth Annual Organic Summit in Boston. Topics ranged from 
the challenges of procuring organic ingredients, to overall trends and 
perceptions of consumers, to strategies for defending against genetically 
modified organisms (GMOs), to ways of overcoming the seemingly hardwired 
American preference for everything cheap.

But three major issues became abundantly clear as the day wore on in that 
windowless, generic hotel ballroom -- three major issues that could affect 
every single person on this planet for better or for worse.

1. Americans are very confused about what organic is and is not, and why 
organic matters. The majority of Americans think foods with the word 
"natural" on them are better and safer than "organic." And yet there are no 
governmental safety standards for using the word "natural." Natural, in fact, 
means nothing. But it's a happy word, so food companies slap it on anything 
they can to make their products sell better.

The proliferation of other labels: "beyond organic," "locally grown," 
"humanely raised," "free range" and "sustainable" adds to the confusion. And 
when people are confused (and frankly, many times even when they are not 
confused), they revert to their primary emotional driver of decisions, which 
is most often price. So they choose the cheapest food rather than the safest 
for the planet. That confusion plays right into the hands of the chemical 
food industry.

2. The organic industry must focus on clearing up that confusion and 
communicating why organic food is so important and the safest food you can 
buy. We, in the organic industry, have spent most of our time and energy 
trying to prove that organic is more nutritious, when instead, as Kanthe 
Shelke from Corvus Blue (a nutritional technology think tank) told us, we 
should be focusing on "what organic does not have." Organic foods do not have 
neurotoxin pesticides, endocrine disruptors, herbicides and other chemicals, 
which some doctors and scientists believe might play a role in everything 
from diabetes and obesity to infertility, autism and cancer -- especially 
childhood leukemia.

The medical studies that support these seemingly inflammatory hypotheses do 
exist, and they are not getting picked up by the media. The American Academy 
of Environmental Medicine has even issued a call for a moratorium on GMO 
foods because it has seen evidence of liver, kidney, and digestive failure as 
well as infertility and accelerated aging (hello, Hollywood, are you 
listening?). But it's almost too late already, since over 75 percent of all 
processed (non organic) foods in America already include GMOs. The tragedy of 
this statistic is that the pollen from these plants has been unleashed into 
our environment and can't ever be reined back in.

For any environmentalist to not be a raving organic supporter is outrageous. 
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by agricultural runoff all the 
way down the Mississippi, existed even before the BP oil gusher -- and this 
year it is the largest it has ever been. A giant dead zone is what the whole 
world is headed for if we don't stand up and do a better job of educating the 
American public. Colony collapses affecting our bees, frog mutations and 
amphibian declines, jaw deformities in the wildlife of our national parks 
(which yes, use chemicals like crazy), and the melting polar caps can all be 
attributed to agricultural chemicals.

Finally, here's what organic does not do: destroy the soil, which destroys 
the carbon-capturing capability of our planet, which destroys our atmosphere 
and causes global warming. Numerous studies have shown that chemical 
agriculture destroys soil structure, leading quickly to desertification and 
even more quickly to way too much carbon dioxide leaching into the 
atmosphere. Yes, it's complicated. But we can't keep living on this planet if 
we don't start understanding this and paying attention to it soon.

3. If we are going to save the world, we will have to unite and work together 
instead of fighting among ourselves. One thing is true about Americans, if 
you believe what you see in the TV ratings, we prefer arguing to action. But 
there comes a time when all that philosophical hot air (left and right, mind 
you) needs to take a back seat to true responsibility.

What does that mean for the organic world? We actually have enough scientific 
evidence to know that modern organic farming is our best shot at long-term 
survival for all, so now it's time to unite and focus on what is most 
important. The vegetarians need to get along with the omnivores. The 
locavores need to draft a peace treaty with the fair traders. Slow foodies 
will need to hang out a bit more with the fast foodies. Those who support 
their local, small family farmer will have to learn to appreciate industrial 
organic, which feeds a lot of people without creating tons of toxic waste. 
And we all need to start singing from the same songbook.

"Inconsistency is the hobgoblin of ineffective communications," one speaker 
at the summit said. And while we have each been singing our own songs and 
marching to the beats of different drums, chemical companies -- including 
Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, Pioneer, Cargill, ADM and DuPont -- have been making 
huge profits with the financial and legislative support of our government. 
But here is the good news: Despite all our stumbling and well-meaning 
confusion and the worst economic times since the Great Depression, the 
organic industry grew 5.3 percent in 2009. The USDA Certified Organic label 
is still the strongest, safest and most trustworthy label available to 
consumers and is backed up by independent testing. Many of the longtime 
leaders who spoke at the summit have already exceeded their expectations of 
success.

So now, together, we are all standing on a precipice. We can all work 
together to build the road to the other side (where the water is pure and 
clean, the children are healthy and strong, the air and soil and forests 
alive and thriving). Or we can continue to go our separate ways, each one 
thinking his own path is the best path, and creating a web of meandering, 
poorly marked trails that lead in circles going nowhere fast.

The first step is supporting the USDA Organic Label, supporting certified 
organic farmers, buying certified organic foods, and not being embarrassed or 
apologetic for using the word "organic." The scientific evidence exists to 
prove it is safer and healthier for everyone and the environment. Now it's 
time for action. It's time to demand organic, support organic, buy organic, 
and protect and defend organic. It's our best hope for a healthy future for 
us all.