Once again, Unexpected Environments is happy to share a post from the Cornucopia Institute, which
supports strong organic labeling standards and calls out corporate
agribusiness for greenwashing unethical farming practices and diluting
the value of the USDA Organic certification. Charlotte Vallaeys, the institute's Director of Farm and Food Policy, takes Time Magazine to task for continuing the corporate media's campaign to slander organic agriculture as "elitist" and its produce no more healthy than chemically-laced corporate food. For more information, follow this link to the Institute's website.
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Dr. Oz in Time Magazine slanders Families Who Choose Safe, Organic Food for Their Children
As
Americans become increasingly aware of the story behind conventional
foods—the ecologically destructive monoculture fields, the petrochemical
fertilizers, the toxic pesticides and dangerous fumigants—the
agrochemical industry has launched an all-out media offensive against
the booming organic industry.
The
agrochemical industry’s communications specialists have apparently
found willing partners in major nationwide media outlets like The New York Times and Time
magazine, which have recently published articles discouraging people
from buying organic foods. The message is nearly always the same, as
industry-friendly researchers and reporters downplay the role and harm
caused by agricultural chemicals and focus instead on the differences
between a handful of common nutrients. Despite overwhelming scientific
evidence to the contrary, the conclusion is always that organic foods
are not worth the extra price because the nutritional differences are
minimal.
First,
we must set the record straight. Scientific studies show that milk
from pastured cows contains higher levels of beneficial fats. Beef from
grass-fed cattle and eggs from pastured hens are lower in cholesterol
and saturated fat and higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamins
A and E. Organic strawberries and tomatoes contain more healthy
antioxidants. These are all undisputed facts laid out in a myriad of
published, peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Consumers
increasingly turn to organic and grass-based foods, based on this
scientific evidence that has been reported in magazines, including Time, in recent years. Now, the Dec 3rd issue of Time
mindlessly repeats the agribusiness mantra: “Nutritionally, an egg is
an egg.” Milk is milk. And canned peas, with toxic pesticide residues,
heated to extreme temperatures during processing, and then placed in a
container lined with a suspected endocrine disruptor, are just as
healthy as those for sale at a farmer’s market, picked fresh from a
local field just hours ago.
