Hook Family wrote:
> Organic farming seems intuitively better for the environment due to the lack
> of chemicals used, but the reduced yields compared to conventional farming
> are an important trade-off in deciding if this is really an improvement.
> Organic farmers justify higher prices because they have lower yields; weeds
> and insects compete with the crops more effectively. It has been estimated
> that twice as much land would have to be farmed with organic methods to
> produce the same amount of food we currently grow. That much farmable land
> does not exist.
This is the same type of statement that Avery and the Hudson institute have been
saying. In the next few months, I'll (hopefully) have three publications out in
scientific journals showing that "when properly applied, and maintained" organic
soil amendments produce as much as conventional fertilizers, while reducing the
incidence of some soilborne plant diseases.
I wonder who supports the American council on Science and Health? It sounds
more prestigious than "the Hudson Institute," but still. . . The following are
a list of "press releases" under their food safety issues:
--Traditional Holiday Dinner Replete with Carcinogens, Health Group Finds
--Health Panel Decries Attacks on Milk
--Science Panel Disputes Charge that Bread Additive Poses Cancer Risk
--Microbes, Not Chemicals, Are the Major Source of Foodborne Illness
--New Report Explains Assessment, Significance of Trace Levels of
Environmental Chemicals
--Health Panel Decries Use of Dietary 'Race Card' by Activist Group
--Scientists Honor ACSH Founders with Festschrift
--Scientific Panel Applauds New USDA Rules for Meat Irradiation, Scoffs at
Fear Mongers
--Do Sodas Imperil Children's Health? Statement of the American Council on
Science and Health
--Science Panel Rejects Kellogg's Claims That Cereal Prevents Colon Cancer
--Health Panel Gives the Nod to Dietary Supplement Labeling Rules
--Health Panel Supports Irradiation as Aid to Export of Hawaiian Fruit
--Scientific Group Reviews the Greatest Unfounded Health Scares of Modern
Times
--Comments of the American Council on Science and Health to the Food
Advisory Committee on Olestra
Dr. Klurfeld is saying exactly the same things that Dennis Avery said on 20/20
and has been saying (in "Saving the world with Plastics and Pesticides") for
several years.
Just my two cents. . . Russ
--------------------
Russ Bulluck
Visiting Post-Doctoral Scholar
Department of Plant Pathology
1 Shields Ave
UC-Davis
Davis, CA 95616
lrbulluck@ucdavis.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------
The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot
be dealt with as a whole with any detail by any one person,
and at the same time it plays so important a part in the soil
economy that it must be studied.
--Sir E. John Russell
The Micro-organisms of the Soil, 1923
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