Subject: Organic Ag
From: [email-masked] (Bowman, Bruce)
Date: 14 Jul 1994 14:20:48 -0000
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

>        'Organic farming' is a ripoff. It is used to seperate the
>        gullible from their money, devalue objective reasoning
>        and spawn incredible volumes of incredibly bad federal

Gullible or not, the fact remains that there is a sector of the populace
who wants to purchase foodstuffs that have not had things sprayed on them.
While I will grant you that there are those who are playing this up and
taking advantage of the situation, I can assure you that there is a large
contingent of organic farmers who believe in what they are doing, are
conscientious, and are actually SEEKING regulation of their own industry
in order to gain the level of credibility you are unwilling to give them.

How many corporate farms are out there embracing regulation? What group
*really* has the best interests of their consumers in mind?

>       How many farmers have had to give up because insane
>       regulation made it too expensive to farm ? How many
>	people in the chemical sector were put out of work
>	because the Fed, egged-on by the 'nature' cults, 
>	decides their farm chemicals were 'bad' ? How many

Your rhetoric is empty. No one is going out of business because of organic
agriculture. On the contrary, organic is one of the few means by which the
family farmer may actually be able to salvage a livelihood. It is another
option for the farmer; one that many desperately need right now.

Unless you have a vested interest in farm chemical sales, I don't understand
why you would begrudge this opportunity to a farmer. If they don't want to
pursue it, at least they have the choice. Even I, who work for a company 
with ties to ag chemicals, am able to see the benefits.

>	'Organic' and 'natural' are lies. If the terms are
>	coming under more and more scrutiny then it must be
>	because the LSD is finally wearing-off after all these
>	years. 'Organic' cannot withstand close scrutiny
>	any more than a TV faith healer can. It's the
>	same old smoke & mirrors game, triumph of image
>	over substance, magic over sensibility. 

In many cases, you are right; but there are always a group of carpetbaggers
who are glad to take advantage of any given situation. In many other cases, 
you are dead wrong -- these are the ones seeking regulation of their own
industry.
 
Labelling all organic farmers as a bunch of old hippies peeing on their 
pumpkins is unfair. They serve the needs of their customers; many of which
have high sensitivities to organophosphates or other pesticides. I have 
seen clients fall all over the farmer for at last providing them with 
produce that they can consume without a number of adverse effects (rashes, 
heart palpitations, nervous twitches). 

Yet, simply because they choose NOT to use something on their farms, you 
would condemn all of them.

There is room for both conventional and organic agriculture -- there is no
need to pooh-pooh one over the other. Both serve the needs of their customer
base. Organic is really only a cottage industry; and I really don't 
understand the basis for such doomsday prophesies. 

Why *are* you so afraid of old hippies peeing on their pumpkins?

From: BOWMAN BRUCE E                (MCVAX0::RC30906)

To:   VMS MAIL ADDRESSEE            (IN::"[email-masked]")