Thursday, September 2, 2010

Maine Reporter Spread Ag Misinformation

Natural Foodie: The real cost of the food we eat

By Avery Yale Kamila akamila@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

The massive recent egg recall reveals how much our food actually costs. As Americans, our food is abundant and the price at the checkout is remarkably cheap. But the costs don't end there.

We pay the full price for our food in doctor visits, environmental clean-ups, antibiotic resistance, loss of farmland to sprawl, dead zones in the ocean and property damaged by global warming-fueled storms.

And some of us pay for it with our lives after consuming tainted food.

The recall of 500 million eggs due to salmonella contamination makes it difficult to ignore the stark realities of our industrial agriculture system, where filthy factory farms, toxic petro-chemicals, adulterated animal feed, massive feces lagoons, chronic soil degradation and fragile monocultures have become the norm.  Read More

The amount of almost pure hatred of agriculture in this article is amazing. The author appears to have swallowed every misconception of ag as the truth and feels compelled to share it. What’s really interesting is that she says that all the food grown in Maine is fine but the rest of the food comes from the faceless world of agribusiness. Apparently she thinks there aren’t any family farmers and ranchers in other parts of this country. This is the perfect example of what we are up against in our efforts to educate people about where their food comes from.

4 comments:

Chuck Jolley said...

I'm stunned...even after years of seeing this kind of mindless reporting. She must have graduated from the "University of Witless Shcool of jornalism"

Anonymous said...

It's not "pure hatred" for agriculture. It's anger at industrial practices that keep tens of thousands of chickens in cages. How is that agriculture? How is that "working with animals"?
You guys have to differentiate yourselves from this corporate takeover and abuse of animals.
Do you really think chickens should be crammed in cages for life? Really?
Let's be done with this and get to some more humane practices. It's not "agriculture" and "farming" that most of us "hate": It's cages and mechanization and indifference.

Anonymous said...

I can't understand why some reporters seem to hate anything ag related. Currently it is one of the few industries that is keeping this country from being totally broke in terms of the balance of trade. Yet it appears to be a target for bashing by the media. I think it's because it is a minority industry with less people involved or even understanding it, so that makes it an easy target for sensationalization of their stories.

RealTrees said...

Good Point Troy. Also, do you notice these misinformed opinion pieces disguised as "news" never provide any historical perspective. For example, she makes the statement "And some of us pay for it with our lives after consuming tainted food." Compared to what?...100 years ago? 500 years ago? 5,000 years ago when agriculture was started? The FACT that she fails to include is that our food supply (at least in this country) is the safest in the entire history of agriculture.

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