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Fri Aug 21, 2009 at 15:09:10 PM PDT
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If you've attended any of my book talks, I say that it's important for consumers - not just farmers - to understand the hows and whys of sustainable farming because otherwise, we are susceptible to marketing efforts by the fertilizer, pesticide, and biotech industries. Well... here's Exhibit A. It's a report by the USDA called "The Unexplored Potential of Organic-Biotech Production."
The organic movement rejects biotechnology as inherently contradictory to its fundamental goal of promoting environmental protection in agriculture. European organic promoters in particular stress respect for nature over yield maximization, campaigning for a return to traditional production methods and inputs. [1] In reality, the divide between organics and biotechnology is an artificial construction maintained by ideology rather than science. A governmental decision to change organic regulations to permit the use of biotechnology could have far-reaching policy implications for global agriculture.
Allowing producers to gain organic certification for biotech crops could encourage the development of a new type of environmentally sustainable agricultural production with greater benefits for the consumer.
I go for science - not ideology - and I don't think biotech has a place in organics. For more information on why, I point you to a diary I wrote that summarizes the work of scientist Jack Heinemann and the IAASTD report. |
| Jill Richardson :: USDA Thinks Organics and GMOs Go Together |
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