Page 10 - Spring2010

Letters

The cited deficiencies yielding impactful, and they should be reported, had not yet fully materialized into a
“Thumbs Down” appear to be the scenes like it or not. The objectivity of “Food, system of farming. Organic farming is
on Kevin’s Law and Wal-Mart. The Inc.” is its strength, and correspond- an agroecological farming system that
reviewer seems to think the movie is ingly, the comparative lack of objectivity cannot be simply defined by that which it
arguing on behalf of Kevin’s law, just is the weakness of “Fresh!” is not—that is, not chemical agriculture,
because it reports on the mother’s at- I fear that when WAPF hews so not GMO seed, etc.
tempts to fix things. That’s not Kenner’s predictably to conclusions, like this re- Organic farming did not cause the
argument, that’s the mother’s argument. view, which are essentially ideological Tigris and Euphrates Delta to become
In fact, the juxtaposition of her later and which seem to ignore what’s really a desert. Among the factors contribut-
fears of being sued is even more dra- happening, that the credibility of WAPF ing to the desertification in that region
matic, and stronger, when they are seen likewise suffers. was salinization of the soil from salts
in the light of her advocacy for Kevin’s Steve Bemis delivered to the land via irrigation wa-
law. Ann Arbor, Michigan ter. When soil scientists study farmland
For my money, the message of this converted to organic management, they
movie is exactly epitomized by her The reviewer gave an accurate descrip- generally find that soil quality and or-
plight, namely, there is rampant cen- tion of the movie and his reasons for the ganic matter content are improved over
sorship of discussions about processed negative review, namely the conflicting conventional management.
food, enshrined in statute, the courts, messages about the solution to indus- With that said, I now want to illus-
and in the economic power wielded in trial agriculture. Most of our readers trate that not only is organic farming not
backwater communities which must suf- would vote for the solution offered in responsible for the disasters listed, but
fer as the food factories of America. The Fresh!, which is to patronize small farms that it employs cultural practices that
censorship is the story and is incredible, and artisan processors rather than support principles of the WAPF. This
and the mother in her conflicted situ- purchase organic food from Wal-Mart material would add information to my
ation illustrates the seriousness of the and lobby for laws that could be turned article on “A History of Organic Farm-
problem. Her fear of being sued would against the small producer. ing” (Winter 2006).
have lost most of its punch if her efforts In 1940, Walter Northborne pub-
to pass remedial legislation had been left ORGANIC AGRICULTURE lished his influential book, Look to
on the editing room floor. The article “A Holistic Approach to the Land in which he coined the word
There seems to be a disconnect in Cancer” (Winter 2009) contains false “organic” to refer to a holistic farming
Tim’s review between the fact that an statements about organic agriculture. As system that he envisioned as an alterna-
ethical documentary reports something, an historian of organic farming, I would tive to the “conventional” agriculture
and the content of what is reported. I like to take this opportunity to correct that was associated with soil erosion
think it’s a more powerful documentary some of the misinformation embodied and destruction of natural resources
(actually, better overall than “Fresh!”) in an otherwise interesting article. occurring on a massive scale, not only
because Kenner reports everything Organic farming certainly did not within the United States, but around
that he’s seeing. “A little more editing” cause the Dust Bowl. A major factor the world. Around the same time,
would have destroyed its credibility as contributing to the Dust Bowl was plow- other organic pioneers, including Albert
a documentary, because Kenner then ing of the native prairie. Grain crops Howard, Eve Balfour, Jerome Rodale,
would be seen (correctly) as an ideo- in the Great Plains around the time of and Edward Faulkner, published books
logue, not a reporter. the Dust Bowl were not being grown that expressed great concern about
Likewise, we may not like it, but organically. Prior to 1940, organic the destruction of the soil resource. In
Wal-Mart’s actions occurred, they were farming did not yet exist in name and their publications, they articulated a
10 Wise Traditions SPRING 2010