[Pil-pc-oceania] Organic and GE disinformation article: Warning!

[permaculture at apollobay.org.au]

Warning!
Don't respond directly to Bettina Arndt's email.
My phones have been constantly ringing (prank) since replying directly to
her article.

cheers all!
Fern

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Ilan G ilgo_au at yahoo.com.au
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:41:21 +1000
To: pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
Subject: [Pil-pc-oceania] Herald Sun article - needs response


"*A moo-t point"*

Bettina Arndt

April 13, 2007 12:00am

from Melbourne's 'Herald-Sun' April 13, 2007
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21546616-5000117,00.html#

*IT was a natural food shop with displays of fruit and vegetables, 
baskets of wheat germ and other items pulsing with natural goodness.*

They sold only one brand of bubbly water, proudly labelled "organic 
mineral water".

Organic water? What on earth does that mean?

Mineral water contains minerals, which are inorganic compounds, not the 
compounds of carbon required for an "organic" product.

Water can't be organic. It's a nonsense designed to seduce consumers 
into believing they are buying something special.

And the suckers line up for more.

The organic food industry is booming, with ever more people deluded into 
thinking that paying two or three times more for organic food products 
will provide them with healthier, safer food.

Given the nonsensical claims being made about these food products, what 
is surprising is how few Australian scientists, nutritional experts, or 
simply people with common sense speak out about this subject.

Overseas, it is a different story. Prominent people are quite happy to 
point out that the emperor has no clothes.

In Britain, QC Lord Taverne characterises the trends towards consumers 
buying overpriced organic food as a "monument to irrationality" promoted 
by advocates whose "principles are founded on a scientific howler", 
namely that "natural" chemicals are good and synthetic chemicals bad.

His book, /The March of Unreason/, points out that years of research 
have failed to show major differences between organic and normal food in 
terms of food safety, or nutritional value.

Late last year, the US Institute of Food Technologies summed up the 
latest research in a scientific status summary on organic foods, stating 
it is premature to conclude either food system is superior to the other 
with respect to safety or nutritional composition.

Yes, organic fruits and vegetables do possess fewer pesticide residues 
and lower nitrate levels than the ordinary produce.

But research also shows the absence of pesticides can stimulate the 
production of naturally occurring toxins and organically produced farm 
animals can show higher rates of bacterial contamination.

It makes no sense to revert to practices used a couple of centuries ago, 
such as using animal manure as the major fertiliser for food crops and 
refusing to pasteurise milk and fruit juices.

In the US, there have been recent outbreaks of a dangerous strain of 
E-coli (0157:H7), which can cause serious illness, including kidney disease.

In Colorado, the disease left one girl dead and more than 70 ill as a 
result of drinking unpasteurised apple juice.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control, people who eat organic 
food are eight times more likely than the rest of the population to 
contact the dangerous E-coli strain.

It is not as if organic food even tastes consistently better. Consumers 
find difficulty picking organic food in blind taste tests, as shown by 
many studies, including one by Choice in Australia.

As Lord Taverne points out, if people were really worried about the 
effects of pesticides in farming on wildlife or human health, they 
should promote pest-resistant GM crops, which reduce pesticide use.

That's hardly likely.

The solid scientific support for the safety and efficiency of GM crops 
means nothing to blinkered souls, who trust instincts over science.

The organic fad is an indulgence of the rich.

Even if most claims for organic farming could be substantiated, its main 
disadvantage is its inefficiency.

Organic food costs more because average yields are 20-50 per cent lower 
than those from conventional farms.

While the affluent trendies indulge their foolish food fad, we still 
need to treble food production in the next 50 years to feed three 
billion extra people.

*bettinaarndt at hotmail.com*



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