The Omnivore’s Debate
As industrial agriculture is under attack from Michael Pollan and his followers, the debate over how we transition to sustainable agriculture AND feed the world’s population rages on. One ‘agri-intellectual’ addresses the criticisms and misleading arguments of one farmer, who defends the combined use of GM seed and herbicides as a solution to reducing soil erosion. Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma is at the center of this much needed discussion.
Read Tom Phillpot’s essay, An ‘agri-intellectual’ talks back, in response to Blake Hurst’s essay, The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals. Any thoughts or comments?
Well, I think farmer’s aren’t necessarily the problem- it’s the ’system’. Farmers are out to make a buck like anybody else, and they try to do that in the most economical way possible. I think to change the farmer’s ‘methods’, you need to change the farm bill and the entire way a farmers compensated and/or operates.
I’ll dispense with the suspense, I happen to be a fan of Mr.Pollan’s book and come out agreeing with him- so if that makes this a biased view, so be it.
Contrary to Mr. Hurst’s criticism of Mr. Pollan, I do not think that Mr.Pollan writes as if he’s inventing the wheel and all his ideas are ‘new’. I think Mr. Pollan states with clarity today’s farming practice. He’s showing you where our food comes from. Is it dirty and messy? Sure it is…has it always been? yes… but not to the degree that it is today. And I think that’s Mr. Pollan’s point. The food we eat today is not the same food our grandfathers ate.
For Mr. Hurst to suggest that GM seeds and herbicides help him reduce soil erosion, is a man who only looks at one part of the equation, his, and not the bigger picture. Like I said, in order to change the view point of a farmer, you need to change the system in which he has to operate. This kind of change needs to happen from the top down. I do not think it will be a farmers ‘grass roots’ movement that leads to Washington rewriting policy. A farmer operates under a constantly changing line of federal rules and guidlines, every year the farm bill changes and so it’s no wonder that Mr. Hurst writes with anger- defending his practice. Yet, it’s this same myopia that has gotten America in the position it is. We need a different paradigm in the way we do things now. A different way in which we judge our success and failures. We can no longer afford to simply look at what happens in our own back yard and be content with only that.