Dear Michelle O, You Need More Pesticides. Love, Big Ag

by Jill Richardson · 2009-03-31 10:58:00 UTC
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Michelle ObamaThe highlight of my weekend was a letter forwarded to me by a friend. It was written by an organization called the Mid America CropLife Association (which counts Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta among its members). They were horrified that Michelle Obama was making her new White House garden organic and wanted to let her know all about the wonders of chemical ag.

My favorite part? "Much of the food considered not wholesome or tasty is the result of how it is stored or prepared rather than how it is grown. Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical." Oh yeah, just because we dumped pesticide all over your food doesn't make it less good for you. And please, don't worry about the environmental impact of how your food was grown.

What shocked me the most about the reactions to this letter I heard was how surprised people were that a little family garden was so threatening to the chemical ag industry. What's it to them if Michelle doesn't want to feed her family pesticides (or "crop protection products" as they refer to them)? Unfortunately, the reaction to Michelle's organic garden shown in the letter is very normal. Friends who are active in pushing for support of sustainable ag by the American government (and state governments) tell me all the time how lobbyists show up to pressure legislators to NOT make ANY statements that organic might be superior to "conventional" (toxic) agriculture. And one friend who's been quite active and successful in making changes in Washington got a threatening email from Monsanto's lawyer.

In my own experience, I've been contacted by the Corn Refiners' Association's PR firm to request that I stop saying that there is mercury in high fructose corn syrup. I know that one recent film about food made sure it had at least 3 sources to back up every single statement in the entire film, in anticipation of lawsuits. I'm just waiting to see what happens once my book (Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It) comes out. I don't expect to sell more than a few thousand books, but it seems to me that no threat is too small to these huge corporations. They've got the money and the resources to go after anyone who suggests that perhaps the food they make and the way they produce it aren't so good for us.

(Photo credit: Mikebaird on Flickr)

Jill Richardson
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