I have received a land-slide of e-mails in response to my appearance on the Howard Stern Show this February. Most of them are good, and very supportive. There’s are a few calling me an idiot, I expect that. There was one gentleman who brought up some good points that I would like to argue from my standpoint. As of this writing I am awaiting his response. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
John,
I’m a Stern fan and also work in the “big ag” industry.
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Hey John,
I support your up coming trip and think its a great idea. I just got done reading big ag vs.organics, and I just had a few thought for you.On your trip you will meet many farmers, yet no two farmers will farm the same or think alike. You will find farms of all sizes most will be family farms. John you are obviously very intellegent and very well read but much of your information is outdated or incorrect. The big ag guy was talking about milking cows making 50lb milk not meat. Anyways STOP wasting your valuable time arguing someone elses point of view when your about to go out and get the REAL information for you self.If you think you already have all the answers then your just goimg for a long bike ride. If you really want to learn about sustainable farming then open your mind and take it all in. Then write JOHN SUSCOVICH book on organic farming thats the book I want to read. Good luck, John
John,
Great response, thanks for writing. To be honest I feel a little dumb having argued about the wrong topic, it does seem he was talking about milk production. However, I still feel as though the points I made are valid in their own right, just maybe not as a proper rebuttal to the e-mail I received.
You are perfectly right that I am going to meet a lot of different farmers and they are going to all have their different ways of doing things. The fundamentals that organic and bio-dynamic farmers share however, are the same, even if their scale and methods differ.
It is not just reading that I have done on the topic so far, although I have done a lot. Most of the books I have read have been published within the last few years. I do regularly talk to farmers in my area and friends from across the country. I read and subscribe to several different magazines and organizations that publish articles on the current happenings of agriculture. One major one is the Organic Consumers Association. http://www.organicconsumers.org/
It is with all this that I am trying to stay as current and relevant as possible while being limited to my Queens Apartment. It will be refreshing when I can actually go put my hands in the soil of the farms I am talking about and talk with the farmers in person. For now what I have is phone calls, and other peoples work. I will continue to write about it as long as I feel their voices echo my own.
Thank you for taking the time to read the article. As the weather turns towards the better I will be visiting actual farmers and the content of my writing will reflect that. I promise to bust my behind of the John Suscovich book on Organic Farming so that some day you will enjoy it.
Cheers,
John
Sussy,
I was wondering if you plan on going to any non organic farms or factories. I think it will help if you get a look at both places and interview those people as well. I can’t wait for the book or journal to come out. I have been slowly moving to all organic and there is no arguement about the taste of food from organic farming compared to others. Organic is 100% better at least.
Steve
Heard your appearance on the Stern show and had to come check out your site. This is a great idea and I hope I remember to keep visiting so I can hear about what you find in the exotic locales you’ll be visiting.
In regards to the big ag v. organics argument: the biggest failing of big ag is the vast amount of non-renewable resources that gets consumed in the creation of fertilizers, pesticides, food for animals, and the shipment of the product that it takes to run this machinery to and from producers and consumers. With LOCAL organic farming you eliminate all of those problems and can enrich local communities rather than just the owners of huge production and distribution businesses. I live right near what is arguably the epicenter of this movement in the US in Vermont. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of oil in the entire world and that is an unsustainable and dangerous (in case of shortages) position to be in. It is a fatal problem before you even consider things like the effects of chemical ferts/pesticide on land and water, or human consumption through food, the huge manure lakes created by factory farming, the nutritional composition of plants and animals lacking in diverse nutrients, and subjective things like taste.
Steve,
You have a fantastic question. I would love to visit some conventional farms and I have been working on that. The problem is, and it’s a problem that several other people who have tried to do what I am doing have encountered, is that a lot of conventional operations, especially livestock do not allow people to see what they’re doing, take pictures, and ask too many questions. If there’s any conventional farmers out there who would like to either host me or at least give me a phone interview I would love it and you can contact me through the website.
There’s a level of transparency that I admire and appreciate in organic farming. Organic farmers want you to know what they are doing and how they produce their food (from my experiences thus far). Another thought, some of the farmers I have planned to meet up with are either in transition to organic from conventional or have already made the transfer.
Thanks for the message Steve.
John
Great response Kyle, thank you.
John
Steve,
That an excellent question, “do I plan to visit and non-organic farms or factories?” The answer is I would love to. I have not tried very hard to persue that goal yet though and I will tell you why. In most of the documentaries I have watched, most of the people I have talked to, and most of the books I have read, there is some difficulty gaining access to non organic factories or farms.
Part of organics selling point is the transparency of their practices. Part of the conventional farming/processing’s selling point is their shroud of mystery. They don’t want you to know how your food is made as much as most people don’t want to hear it. Out of sight, out of mind. Many, many of the writers, self-proclaimed “investigators”, that write books about where our food comes from have tried to no avail to get interviews with farms, factories, and corporations and have been turned down, not allowed to release content, or in some cases had lawsuits filed against them.
In “Food Inc.” a documentary about food (you will see my review on the site shorty) one such conventional chicken “farmer” was interviewed and she showed the film crew around her chicken warehouses. A couple weeks after the movie was released, her contract with the corporation was dropped and she went out of business. Faced with that reality you can imagine why people don’t want to talk about what they’re doing to our food.
Several of the farmers I plan to visit have made the switch from conventional to organic and I intend to ask them, “why the change?”
If there are any conventional farmers out there that would like to share how what they are doing is sustainable I would love to talk to you and hear you side. You can shoot me and e-mail or post on the blog.
Hope that answers your question Steve.
Cheers,
John