Delicious diversity

One of the things that I like about the RSS feeds I have linked into the blog is their political diversity. For example, on one hand I have plugged in the latest FDA-bashing headline from the Center for Science in the Public Interest and at the other spectrum you have Dennis Avery at the Center for Global Food Issues casting doubt over global warming and erosion-prone farming methods of organic growers.

Avery says this in a post about organic farming methods and the impact of those methods after heavy rains in Minnesota:

“Unfortunately, Rick, 28 counties in your region are famous for mudslides, massive soil erosion and Black Blizzard dust clouds. The Upper Mississippi Loess Hills are unstable leftovers from the last Ice Age. During the Dust Bowl, they suffered 15 times as much erosion as they do today. Without careful farming they could start eroding again, triggered by an erosion event like last month’s “thousand-year” rain.
Organic farmers refuse to use no-till farming, and this is nearly criminal in the Loess Hills. Dr. Stanley Trimble, America’s top soil erosion expert, says Loess Hills farmers cut their erosion by 95 percent after the Dust Bowl, using contour planting, more crop rotations, fencing off woodlots—and more recently, low-till farming.

During this weather event, organic farming simply wasn’t as soil-safe as no-till, and only 30% better than obsolete chisel tillage (still used by many organic farmers.) All the talk about organic farmers creating better soil health didn’t make any difference to those raindrops.

Meanwhile, the left leaning Center for Science in the Public Interest says this about the FDA reform bill:

The FDA reform bill that passed the House on Wednesday and the Senate last night represents a step forward in protecting scientific integrity at the Food and Drug Administration. However, given the magnitude of the problems in drug and food safety that have come to light in recent years, the bill falls far short of spurring the dramatic changes that the public needs and deserves.

TK: While both ends of the idea spectrum are entertaining, the produce industry cannot afford the luxury of taking the reactionary position of a Dennis Avery and won't abide everything that Caroline Smith DeWall has to say about reforming FDA. Forging a consensus on what regulation is acceptable and workable for produce growers - not rejecting government involvement out of hand - is where the future lies.