mrj said:
Diamond S CattleCo, you have successfully refuted very little of what was stated as fact in the article.
I offered about as much evidence as the idiot who wrote the article. But lets see if I can throw a little more evidence your way. And since you say that you feel the need to defend your production practices from negative press, you can certainly understand my agitation when an author offers nothing more than an unsubstantiated opinion based on a conversation with a single "expert" who obviously knows nothing about organic production values. But, by all means, if you have more evidence to support the author of the article, please present it. The rest of us organic production folks are patiently waiting.
The way I see it, the original author was attempting to make three main points:
1) Organic production is crueler because animals are left to suffer. I know of NO organic producer who won't give their animals antibiotics when they are hurt. Are there some out there? Certainly there are. By the same token, the conventional guy down the road often doesn't give antibiotics either in an attempt to save a buck. MRJ, since you are defending the author, please show me ONE organic production manual that tells the producer to not give antibiotics under any circumstances? Just one MRJ.
2) Organic products are identical. Now c'mon MRJ, even websites that PROMOTE hormones admit there are differences between hormone and non-hormone treated beef and dairy. Where the disagreement between conventional and organic producers comes into play is whether these additional hormones are harmful or not. Given that North Americans for the first time ever are expected to live a shorter lifespan than those born before us, I think anyone can successfully argue that current food products on the shelf are certainly not PROMOTING long life.
But if you don't believe me that hormone products are not identical, heres a few web links:
http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/askexpert/inthenews.asp#qa7
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/hormones/
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020105/bob13.asp
http://www.healthcoalition.ca/hormones.html
That last one is especially interesting. I've long held that adults can "probably" handle the added hormones in beef and dairy, but raised concerns about what we're stuffing into our children and how its affecting their development. I'm the step-father of a special needs child who suffers from a variety of mental illnesses, and as such, I've read everything I can get my mitts on. In the last 30 years or so, mental illness in children, based on a percentage of children born is on the rise. I don't have that book handy to give exact quotes on percentages, but its in the hundreds. Hundreds of percent! Why do you think this is, MRJ? Whats changed in the last thirty years to cause perfectly functional adults to suddenly start banging out mentally ill children?
Would you like me to go on? According to Google, there are 1,440,000 articles on the net. In every last HONEST one of them, even the ones that support added hormones, they will tell you flat out that there are additional hormones to be found in beef and dairy animals given hormone injection or implants.
3) Organic farms are less productive and inefficient. I just gave you an example of this years hay yields from organic versus conventionally farmed hay lands. But heres a few links:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/041903_organic.cfm
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=78222-organic-conventional-farming-supply
http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/579/conv_vs_org.pdf
The last link is also especially interesting. In there we have studies that show organic production being anywhere between 90% of conventional up to 200% MORE than conventional farming. There are also numerous mentions that organic farms require LESS energy. The author stated some bullshit quote that said organic farms required 6 TIMES more diesel? How? How is this possible. The basis of organic farming is minimizing inputs. We're not spraying. We're not spreading fertilizer. Zero till is in heavy use with organic producers. How the hell are we using more fuel?
So there you go MRJ. Properly refuted. Feel free to post evidence that supports the idiot who authored that trash.
Rod