Reprinted from the January 2010 issue of the Ester Republic.

One of the most potent of the seven* myths of industrial agriculture is the claim that biotechnology will eventually solve all of the problems that people like me point out about industrial agriculture. This is an especially potent myth, because it taps into our society’s collective reverence for, and general ignorance regarding, science and technology. Invoking genetic engineering invokes an optimism instilled in us by the Jetsons, the moon landing, and Star Trek, that all of society’s great problems can and will eventually be solved by the ongoing march of technology. To question technology is tantamount to heresy; as Michael Specter argues in his book Denialism, to do so is to stand in the way of our human potential. We should be rallying behind the geneticists who are trying to make progress towards a more food secure world, Specter asserts, not fear-mongering and beating the drums of backwards, inefficient agricultural technologies of the past. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from the December 2009 issue of the Ester Republic.

My moms, recalling their recent visit to Polyface Farm in Staunton, VA, kept returning to one thing that struck them most about their visit to Joel Salatin’s icon of small-scale agriculture: it did not stink. There to purchase free-range turkeys for the holidays, they toured hoop-houses occupied by layers and roasters, walked pastures of grass-fed cows, even helped Salatin’s son to rotate pig stock, and through it all, they did not once encounter an unpleasant odor.

Those of us who tend our own gardens and farms aren’t surprised to hear this, of course. Farming should not smell bad. When we are turned by an odor we are experiencing a hard-wired evolutionary signal alerting us that something is unhealthy or unsafe: rotten food, rancid meat, poisonous plants, noxious fumes. Thus, smell is one of the best built-in tools we have for knowing when something is wrong on our farms. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from the November, 2009 Ester Republic.

In the powerful book Fatal Harvest, a collection of essays on industrial agriculture edited by Andrew Kimbrell, seven common myths are identified that make up the “big lie” of industrial agriculture. These include such chestnuts as “industrial food is cheaper”, and “industrial agriculture offers more variety.” Each are effectively and systematically disassembled in the book, exposed as entirely ungrounded in reality. But there is a funny thing about myths: you can expose them in a book, or on T.V., but that will not necessarily stop the world from perpetuating them for years and years to come. Windmills have to be visible to everyone before they can be slain for good. So with that in mind, I thought it might be illuminating to take these next seven issues of ER to look at each of these myths in practice. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from the October, 2009 issue of the Ester Republic

Recently a consortium of food companies established an opt-in food labeling program called “Smart Choices.” According to the Smart Choices website, http://www.smartchoicesprogram.com/ ,

The Smart Choices Program was motivated by the need for a single, trusted and reliable front- of-pack nutrition labeling program that U.S. food manufacturers and retailers could voluntarily adopt to help guide consumers in making smarter food and beverage choices.

(more…)