Avery and food safety

Pam Murray (csas001@unlvm.unl.edu)
Fri, 7 Aug 1998 11:05:59 -0500

Our Lincoln, Neb. paper carried an article Aug. 3 by Dennis Avery (Knight
Ridder Newspapers) with the headline "Government not coming clean about
organic foods." The bold pull quote read "Organic and natural foods made up
about only 1 percent of the U.S. food supply, but they were implicated in at
least 8 percent of the confirmed 0157:H7 E. coli cases."

Avery blasted EPA for distributing new pamphlets to supermarkets this week
that "talk about undocumented 'dangers' from pesticide residues in our food"
while not addressing the dangers from organic and "natural" foods that pose
even greater risks. He states such things as Consumer Reports found that
free-range chickens are more likely to be infected with dangerous bacteria.

The entire article was very anti-organic (surprise, surprise!), and used
scare tactics that in my mind are questionable. To say it was an unbalanced
treatment of the topic would be an understatement. Now we in the sust ag
community are well aware of Avery and his message, but the general public
could be easily mislead by such an article. It was brought to my attention
by one of our food science professors, who asked if I had any idea on what
grounds Avery was basing his statements. Did any of you see such an item in
your local papers?
***********************
Pam Murray, Coordinator
Center for Grassland Studies and
Center for Sustainable Agricultural Systems
PO Box 830949
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE 68583-0949
phone: 402-472-9383
fax: 402-472-4104
e-mail: csas001@unlvm.unl.edu

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