FW: If you can't beat'em, slur'em: ABC attacks organic food

[alex lantsberg]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Brasscheck [mailto:ken at brasscheck.com] 
>Sent: Friday, February 04, 2000 7:18 PM
>To: Recipient List Suppressed:;
>Subject: If you can't beat'em, slur'em: ABC attacks organic food
>
>
>If you can't beat'em, slur'em: ABC attacks organic food
>
>ABC's 20/20 John Stossel, who has raised the art of shilling
>for big business to a fine art, is now at work educating the
>public about the *dangers* of organic food.
>
>In Stossel's twisted universe, the market is god,
>unless of course the market is not buying what his
>clients want it to buy. Then the market is misguided
>and needs a multi-million dollar mass media re-education
>program. ("You will buy crap and like it.")
>
>One "expert" given a huge audience by Stossel's program
>pointed out that manure has a lot of bacteria in it
>and therefore crops grown organically are more
>dangerous than those sprayed with pesticide. Uh huh.
>Earth to expert: most farmers, regardless of their
>methods, use manure when they can get it because
>its cheaper and better than manufactured fertilizer.
>
>The expert, Dennis Avery, is identified simply as a
>former researcher for the Agriculture Department.
>No other affiliation is given. I guess the brilliant
>research team at ABC couldn't find his current day job which
>is Director of the Hudson Institute's "Center for Global
>Food Issues."
>
>Call 1-800-222-1556 and you can hire him to give one of
>his popular speeches "Organic Farming's Threat to People
>and Wildlife" or "Saving the Planet with Pesticides and
>Plastic." I kid you not.
>
>Some other achievements his employer the Hudson Institute
>crows about on its web site include:
>
>* Taking the lead on pushing for the expansion of NATO membership
>to the countries of Central Europe (I'm sure the people of
>Yugoslavia appreciate that.)
>
>* Helping transform many aspects of the criminal and law enforcement
>systems in Indianapolis (Remind me to not go there.)
> 
>* Advising dozens (sic) of former communist governments on how to make
>the transition to democracy and market economies, (Great work
>guys, especially in Russia) and
>
>* Designing and implementing innovative models of education reform
>across the country. (Now there's a comforting thought.)
>
>Avery's also been featured in the Wall Street Journal as well.
>Here's one person's answer to his ravings in that rag:
>http://www.wildoats.com/know/organics.html
>
>Another Avery gem from the Stossel slimefest: Avery says
>"organic farmers waste land and resources because they
>lose so much of their crop to  weeds and insects. Avery
>says it's today's conventional farmers who have performed
>an environment-saving miracle by taking nitrogen to make
>chemical fertilizer, using pesticides and genetically
>engineered seeds to feed more people, using less land."
>
>Stossel's informed conclusion: organic food isn't
>safe, it isn't particularly nutritious, and it isn't
>good for the environment at all.
>
>We can laugh, but when's the last time you saw
>a coherent rationale for organic farming on
>a major news program or in a mass circulated
>periodical?
>
>Avery's doing a good job as this January '99
>press release from the Hudson Institute shows:
>
>"Sierra Club  Executive Endorses High-Yield Agriculture,
>Biotech Crops:
>
>Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, has
>endorsed high-yield agriculture, including bio-engineered
>crops, because high farm yields will help save wildlife
>habitat and wild species."
>
>I got that off *Monsanto's* web site by the way: 
>http://www.monsanto.co.uk/news/99/january99/14199_Hudson.html
>
>You don't think companies like Monsanto actually fund the
>"science" and public policy work of people like Dennis Avery
>do you? Goodness! What's this world coming to?
>
>There was supposed to be a comment board on the ABC
>web site for Stossel's story, but it was either never
>set up or quickly taken down. I wonder why...
>
>Another great "investigation" John. Your Pulitzer is in the
>mail.
>
>Is it really that wrong to want to see someone hung by
>his thumbs and horsewhipped?
>
>Just asking.
>
>
>
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>		Brass Check - http://www.brasscheck.com
>
>		"...if only the press were to do its duty, or
>		but a tenth of its duty, this hellish system
>		could not go on."
>  		- William Cobbett, Rural Rides, 1830
>
>		"He who knows best knows how little he knows."
>		- Thomas Jefferson
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