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Title: The Colossal Hoax Of Organic Agriculture
Source:
Forbes
URL Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymi ... griculture-is-a-colossal-hoax/
Published: Jul 29, 2015
Author: Henry I. Miller and Drew L. Kershen
Post Date: 2015-07-29 15:08:17 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 7235
Comments: 46
Consumers of organic foods are getting both more and less than they bargained for. On both counts, it’s not good. Many people who pay the huge premium—often more than a hundred percent–for organic foods do so because they’re afraid of pesticides. If that’s their rationale, they misunderstand the nuances of organic agriculture. Although it’s true that synthetic chemical pesticides are generally prohibited, there is a lengthy list of exceptions listed in the Organic Foods Production Act, while most “natural” ones are permitted. However, “organic” pesticides can be toxic. As evolutionary biologist Christie Wilcox explained in a 2012 Scientific American article (“Are lower pesticide residues a good reason to buy organic? Probably not.”): “Organic pesticides pose the same health risks as non-organic ones.” Another poorly recognized aspect of this issue is that the vast majority of pesticidal substances that we consume are in our diets “naturally” and are present in organic foods as well as non-organic ones. In a classic study, UC Berkeley biochemist Bruce Ames and his colleagues found that “99.99 percent (by weight) of the pesticides in the American diet are chemicals that plants produce to defend themselves.” Moreover, “natural and synthetic chemicals are equally likely to be positive in animal cancer tests.” Thus, consumers who buy organic to avoid pesticide exposure are focusing their attention on just one-hundredth of one percent of the pesticides they consume. Some consumers think that the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) requires certified organic products to be free of ingredients from “GMOs,” organisms crafted with molecular techniques of genetic engineering. Wrong again. USDA does not require organic products to be GMO-free. (In any case, the methods used to create so-called GMOs are an extension, or refinement, of older techniques for genetic modification that have been used for a century or more.) As USDA officials have said repeatedly: Organic certification is process-based. That is, certifying agents attest to the ability of organic operations to follow a set of production standards and practices which meet the requirements of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and the [National Organic Program] regulations . . . If all aspects of the organic production or handling process were followed correctly, then the presence of detectable residue from a genetically modified organism alone does not constitute a violation of this regulation. [emphasis added] Putting it another way, so long as an organic farmer abides by his organic system (production) plan–a plan that an organic certifying agent must approve before granting the farmer organic status–the unintentional presence of GMOs (or, for that matter, prohibited synthetic pesticides) in any amount does not affect the organic status of the farmer’s products or farm. Under only two circumstances does USDA sanction the testing of organic products for prohibited residues (such as pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or antibiotics) or excluded substances (e.g., genetically engineered organisms). First, USDA’s National Organic Production Standards support the testing of products if an organic-certifying agent believes that the farmer is intentionally using prohibited substances or practices. And second, USDA requires that certifying agents test five percent of their certified operations each year. The certifying agents themselves determine which operations will be subjected to testing. The organic community, including the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), supports the USDA’s lenient testing protocols and opposes more frequent mandatory testing of organic products for prohibited and excluded substances. The organic community and USDA offer two explanations for such minimal testing. First, they emphasize that organic farming is process-based, not product-based, meaning that what counts for organic certification are the approved organic system (production) plan and the farmer’s intention to comply with that plan as reflected through record-keeping obligations. Second, widespread testing would impose substantial costs on organic farmers, thereby increasing production costs beyond the already greater expenses that organic farmers incur. Organic farmers offset these higher productions costs by earning large premiums for organic products, but there is always a price point beyond which consumers will shift to cheaper non-organic. Few organic consumers are aware that organic agriculture is a “trust-based” or “faith-based” system. With every purchase, they are at risk of the moral hazard that an organic farmer will represent cheaper-to-produce non-organic products as the premium-priced organic product. For the vast majority of products, no tests can distinguish organic from non-organic—for example, whether milk labeled “organic” came from a cow within the organic production system or from a cow across the fence from a conventional dairy farm. The higher the organic premium, the stronger the economic incentive to cheat. Think such nefarious behavior is purely theoretical? Think again. USDA reported in 2012 that 43 percent of the 571 samples of “organic” produce tested violated the government’s organic regulations and that “the findings suggest that some of the samples in violation were mislabeled conventional products, while others were organic products that hadn’t been adequately protected from prohibited pesticides.” How do organic farmers get away with such chicanery? A 2014 investigation by the Wall Street Journal of USDA inspection records from 2005 on found that 38 of the 81 certifying agents–entities accredited by USDA to inspect and certify organic farms and suppliers—“failed on at least one occasion to uphold basic Agriculture Department standards.” More specifically, “40% of these 81 certifiers have been flagged by the USDA for conducting incomplete inspections; 16% of certifiers failed to cite organic farms’ potential use of banned pesticides and antibiotics; and 5% failed to prevent potential commingling of organic and non-organic products.” Speaking of trust and faith—or lack thereof–in organic foods, there was the example of holier-than-thou Whole Foods importing large amounts of its supposedly “organic” produce from China, of all places. Those imports even included Whole Foods’ house brand, “California Blend.” (Yes, you read that correctly.) Organic agriculture is an unscientific, heavily subsidized marketing gimmick that misleads and rips off consumers, both because of the nature of the regulations and cheating. The old saying that you get what you pay for doesn’t apply when you buy overpriced organic products. Henry I. Miller, a physician, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He was the founding director of the Office of Biotechnology at the FDA. Drew L. Kershen is the Earl Sneed Centennial Professor of Law (Emeritus), University of Oklahoma College of Law.
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#8. To: TooConservative (#0)
To the extent to which state and corporations get involved the term "organic" might lose its meaning. Organic movement was created by grassroot, non government, non corporate actions.
True enough. As the article points out, using natural pesticides on organic is still a lot of chemistry in foods. Vic also made some very good points about the less desirable cosmetics and size of organic produce. The article is a little biased in its estimates that organic contains 99.99% of the pesticides found in non-organic produce. While it is largely truthful, the non-organic pesticides contain chemicals found nowhere in nature so our bodies are likely far more vulnerable to the modern pesticides than to natural pesticides/fertilizers. I thought that the info about organic produce being allowed to contain GMO species is valuable. Most people blithely assume that their organic produce doesn't have GMOs in it and that is incorrect.
It would really be cost prohibitive to test all produce on the market for GMO . I know this because the company I work for pays the lab fees for the right to put non-GMO on our labels . Going non-GMO is silly if you ask me. The whole anti-GMO movement is based on junk science . Every independent scientific body that has ever evaluated the safety of GMO crops has deemed them safe for human beings to eat. This includes the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and many more. Here is what the American Association for the Advancement of Science says : "The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe. The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques." http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/AAAS_GM_statement.pdf I have nothing against organics . I grow my own veggies this time of year and do not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides . I use only hybrid organic seeds . But the issue is how to feed the world .The potential of GMO is to increase crop yields, increase nutritious value, and generally improve farming practices while reducing chemical and land use . It's a win -win situation if we refuse to be Luddites. btw ;those apple size strawberries ? They are not GMO . They were developed with traditional hybridization methods. In fact there are very few GMO products on the market...mostly grain like corn and soy.
At AoS today, I saw a link to this medieval tidbit relevant to this discussion about how man modifies his foods through breeding. Or as AoS calls it, the Poor Man's GMO (selective breeding). A painting of fruit done by Giovanni Stanchi sometime in the mid 1600s shows that the watermelon has changed somewhat in the intervening 350 years. That's because over time, we've bred watermelons to have the bright red color we recognize today. That fleshy interior is actually the watermelon's placenta, which holds the seeds. Before it was fully domesticated, that placenta lacked the high amounts of lycopene that give it the red color. Through hundreds of years of domestication, we've modified smaller watermelons with a white interior into the larger, lycopene-loaded versions we know today. More on food breeding over many centuries: Vox: Here's what 9,000 years of breeding has done to corn, peaches, and other crops And the scourge of the modern apple: TheAtlantic: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious
Tomatoes...Good source of soluble fiber. Keep that colon clean!
This is the second (maybe third) Heck - there is Stella's farm market just 5 miles EDIT: Previously I had grown tomatoes in 4 different states - every year Stella's:
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestSome consumers think that the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) requires
#10. To: A Pole, Vicomte13 (#8)
Organic movement was created by grassroot, non government, non corporate actions.
#13. To: TooConservative, A Pole, Vicomte13 (#10)
#21. To: tomder55, A Pole, Vicomte13, Justified, Pericles, Chuck_Wagon (#13)
btw ;those apple size strawberries ? They are not GMO . They were developed with traditional hybridization methods.
Pericles mentioned the dominance of the red Florida winter tomato. But what about the older heirloom tomatoes? Renaissance painting shows how watermelons looked before selective breeding
JUL 29 2015
Those little yellow cherry tomatoes are likely what the Spaniards found in South American and brought to Europe. Heirloom tomatoes lack a genetic mutation that gives tomatoes an appealing uniform red color while sacrificing the fruit's sweet taste.[3] Varieties bearing this mutation, which have been favored by industry since the 1940s, feature fruits with lower levels of carotenoids and a decreased ability to make sugar within the fruit.[4] 
Organic heirloom tomatoes at Slow Food Nation 
Selection of heirlooms, plus one hybrid, the Early Girl (second largest red)
#24. To: TooConservative, Chuck_Wagon (#21)
#43. To: redleghunter (#24)
(Edited)
Tomatoes...Good source of soluble fiber.
Keep that colon clean!
summer in a row that I have NOT grown
home-grown tomatoes. Laziness, really.
away...
for decades. My most prized / proud were on a second-floor deck off
of an apartment in southern Reno, Nevada. They LOVED
that desert heat. I had to water them (in pots) 3 times
a day, of course. And you could HEAR them slurp up the water... 
Replies to Comment # 43.
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