The Omnivore’s Delusion?

by Patrick Appel

Elizabeth Nolan Brown steers me towards farmer Blake Hurst's attack on Michael Pollan. One of the better points:

Biotech crops actually cut the use of chemicals, and increase food safety. Are people who refuse to use them my moral superiors? Herbicides cut the need for tillage, which decreases soil erosion by millions of tons. The biggest environmental harm I have done as a farmer is the topsoil (and nutrients) I used to send down the Missouri River to the Gulf of Mexico before we began to practice no-till farming, made possible only by the use of herbicides. The combination of herbicides and genetically modified seed has made my farm more sustainable, not less, and actually reduces the pollution I send down the river.

The romanticism of some industrialized food opponents can be naivete. I love organic produce as much as the next foodie, but it would be nice if food critics addressed the economic consequences of "sustainability" gone too far.