B.S. And Organic Marketing - Figuratively and Literally
The large-scale Organic dairy cooperative, “Organic Valley” has just sunk to a new low in the practice of “I will market against my farmer neighbors by stoking consumer’s fears.” They announced that they have launched an on-line calculator that is supposed to show you how much pesticide and fertilizer use is avoided when you buy their products. The news release essentially boils down to the message, “buy our products or you will probably die!” It also essentially accuses the 97.5% of us who don’t buy Organic of destroying the planet.
When talking about pesticides the press report says: “For adults, exposure through diet has been linked to infertility, Parkinson’s, testicular cancer, birth defects and much more. More than one million children in America age five and under ingest at least 15 pesticides daily. Early exposures are suspected in the sharp rise in health problems including autism, obesity, asthma, brain cancer and other childhood cancers.” This broad-brush assertion is misleading on so many levels that it is hard to know where to start. I’m not saying that there have never been any health issues with any pesticide anywhere, but we also have sufficient food in part because of pesticides. Though many people don’t know it, there are pesticides used on organic crops as well. Actually, the EPA has done a very good job of regulating pesticide use over the years so that people don’t need to be frightened about their food.
