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Re: [GWL]: Organic Style Magazine (was: Gardening magazines)

Sorry to be so many days in response to Greg's admirable letter, but this stuff had to germinate.
 
IMHO, what went wrong with the Organic movement began at its very inception in the USA--with J.I. Rodale's intensely ideological dogmatism. Perhaps this sort of totalitarian right/wrong is endemic to American consciousness, as it can be found in other Puritan endeavors preceding the Organic Gardening and Farming movement. Intense hostility to "chemical" approaches was not nearly so intense during J.I.'s era among the British adherents to better and more natural farming.
 
So, in a nutshell, the American public was sold an oversimplified bill of goods in that there is a dichotomy of chemical vs. organic. Such certainties are comfortable and reassuring to the average consciousness, but not very realistic. And, as it is proving out, not very lasting.
 
Which is most unfortunate, as there seems to have been forgotten the connection between "organic" and "healthy longevity" and "the nutritional content of food." Organic in the States came to mean "no pesticide residues" instead of "more nutrition," when more nutrition increases one's ability to tolerate and shrug off minor insults such as occasional residues of toxic substances.
 
The problem is not that there are residues of pesticides in our food; the trouble is that there are only residues of nutrition left in our foods.
 
Steve Solomon
 
ps--please visit my website and study the original books involved in the foundation of the organic farming movement.  http://www.soilandhealth.org/
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: g*@bestweb.net
To: G*@topica.com
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 11:09 PM
Subject: [GWL]: Organic Style Magazine (was: Gardening magazines)

One of my greatest joys when I first became seriously interested in gardening was the arrival of the original “Organic Gardening.” Robert Rodale and his staff were conducting scientific, cutting edge experimentation on alternative methods of pest control and cultivation on their research farm in Emmaus, PA. He reported his results as well as recommendations from other gardeners, botanists, horticulturists, and farmers in this wonderful publication.

 

snip

 

There is so much good work being done today in the fields of sustainable agriculture, biological pest controls, cultivation practices that curtail pest populations and the development of resistant varieties as well as synthetic controls that are less persistent with fewer does and less non-target environmental impact. Unfortunately this work is often thrown into the same wheelbarrow with philosophical gobbledygook by folks looking for easy, black and white, good and evil definitions. I submit that the metamorphosis of this once great publication is a metaphor for what has happened and is happening to our industry and, dare I say, our culture.

 

Greg Quinn

40:47:15.799N

73:58:53.018W

 

 

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