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

[Steve Grube]

I missed the ABC/Stossel show but I did battle with Joanne Jacobs
of the San Jose Mercury News when she wrote a "booster" column
on GM food. In one sentence she said organic alternatives have an
8-fold risk of bacterial infection.  She gave no source but I finally
tracked it to Dennis Avery and the Hudson Institute.  I got hold of
this 1996 CDC data on ecoli infections and put the data into Excel.
When you sort for the food-borne infections and compare organic
to non-organic (they mis-define organic) you could see a roughly
8 times ratio ---BUT it is highly questionable data (their definitions)
AND they are extrapolating from double-digit occurrences and drawing
conclusions for the US food supplies.  This is the same year of the
Odwala apple juice problem I believe and the pre-packaged lettuce
problem. It's very bad data and very, very bad science.  This is the
source of the "infectious" potential of organic food.
(The H. Institute defines organic as food grown in manure!

 Sorry, not even close)              -Steve Grube

alex lantsberg wrote:


> >-----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.
> >
> >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."
> >
> >
> >               "...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
> >               ============================================
> >