The @griculture online piece was written in response to a Wall Street
Journal op-ed story, which summarized an article from _American Outlook_
magazine, a publication of the Hudson Institute, which Dennis Avery is
involved with.
I just got a copy of the original article by Avery. It's quite damning and
contains much narrative, along with a few factoids (including one which
is actually cited). Despite the lack of cited references, it's insidious
and frustrating, especially because I don't have the background in
epidemiology or statistics to know whether to trust the conclusions it
reaches. For instance: "Organic and 'natural' food producers supply only
about 1% of the nation's food, but the CDC have traced approximately 8% of
the confirmed E coli 0157 cases to such foods." From this Avery concludes
that organic foods are 8 times as likely as conventional to contain E coli
0157. (Unfortunately, the Avery article is not available on the Web, at
least not via the Hudson Institute site, except to _American Outlook_
subscribers.) The article also cites Consumer Reports' finding this summer
that their sample of free-range chicken had higher levels of salmonella
than conventionally raised ones.
Does anyone have any further information on food safety in organic foods?
Also, if anyone hears any followup information on this particular story,
could you please send it to sanet, or at least to me?
Thanks,
Rob Fetter
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T. Robert Fetter trf@student.umass.edu
Research Assistant "We are each poets and painters,
Ag. & Resource Economics bricklayers and revolutionaries.
U. of Mass - Amherst But we are all mapmakers..."
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