Article on Organic Food

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/attention_whole_foods_shoppers


Wow! What an interesting article—and by interesting I mean that it is interesting to see an author start with a simple premise, run it through a gamut of basic and logical arguments, and end with an absurd outcome.

First, he says, organic farming less environmentally friendly than previously assumed and organic food is no better for you than ‘conventionally’ grown food (isn’t the convention to use non-gmo & organic? When does new become conventional…) Ok, but this also means that ‘conventionally’ food is no better for you than organic food—and GMO’s do have potentially devastating side effects. (Scientists say there’s nothing to worry about just like engineers said offshore drilling is totally kool-aid)

Secondly, he says Africa and the hungry world doesn’t need more organic food—they’re doing slow, local and organic food right now and they’re hungry. However, high-powered, oil-based industrialized farming is not the solution. Even ‘hungry’ nations in SE Asia were EXPORTING agriculture and other products while at the same time there was large scale hunger in these countries, Cambodia, Indonesia, parts of Thailand, etc. Is there a better comparison of the poverty in the dictatorship of North Korea and the wealth in South Korea? North Koreans aren’t worse off because they are using organic farming, but because their dictator is an evil ruthless person who had destroyed any form of sustainability and sucked every last drop out of the people.

Paarlberg seems to avoid the question of dispersion, equity, politics and a host of other issues creating hunger and states, “Poverty -- caused by the low income productivity of farmers' labor…” Wrong. It’s rarely a productivity issue and usually a political issue. Poverty is created when ‘low productivity’ peasants loose their land or are kicked off by strife, are undercut by big GMO farms exporting food, or become victims of environmental problems (Dams, deforestation, climate change etc.). The problem with the low productivity farmer isn’t his productivity, but that we modern city slickers keep beating the heck out of him making it impossible for him to survive.

A side issue I have is that Paarlberg is totally straw-manning organic food. Some organic salesmen say it will help alleviate poverty, but does anyone who buys organic or local food really believe they are helping alleviate poverty in Africa? Even hippies aren’t that naïve.

But I have an even larger problem with Parrlbergs cost/benefit analysis of organic foods. Perhaps Parrlberg is correct when he says organic food isn’t as environmentally friendly as toted. But does he believe making all our decisions using an environmental cost/benefit gauge is the correct way to make decision? Well, it’s not. We have to make some impact and the smallest impact isn’t necessarily the best. We have to compromise by realizing that we live as part of the environment—not simply against the environment. Responsible use is key—not minimal impact.

The real reason to buy local and organic is because it is the right thing to do. ‘Right’ referring to a host of well reasoned and important environmental and social arguments which I think you already side with—reducing environmental impact, increased food safety, alienation from our food source and a ‘loss of humanity’, decrease in transportation costs, increased local participation in food production, a suburb boy like me catching a glimpse of a farm, and, gleaning from my brief interactions with farmers, it’s what farmers want to grow, etc.

But somehow—and this is the absurd part—Paarlbergs whole article suggests that purchasing local organic food prohibits agricultural aid to Africa. ‘The most effective ways of addressing hunger have fallen out of fashion” OK. Perhaps we don’t give enough aid but what does it have to do with my farmers market or by organic apples? Perhaps its because we found out that GMO’s have yet to prove any real increased crop yields in Africa but that’s just a guess... Snobs in Whole Foods do not evaluate foreign aid program effectiveness. He concludes by pointing out that food aid is less productive than agricultural aid. We’ve known this since ‘give a man a fish or teach him to fish’ …but, again, it has little to do with organic food.

Worst of all in his opening Paarlberg takes a cheap shot at recyclable cloth bags trying to save the environment. What the heck! Using plastic bags once then throwing them away is the height of stupidity and wastefulness! If you do this you are an irresponsible human being. RECYCLE YOUR BAGS!

So continue to research and enjoy the benefits of local and organic food—but don’t expect buying local apples it to solve many problems in Africa. And for the love of all rational things—recycle your bags.