THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 66, May 9, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PRESIDENTIAL CHEMOPHOBIA?
By Dennis T. Avery
THE REPORT OF THE PRESIDENTS CANCER PANEL: ADVISING AMERICA & THE WORLD TO ABANDON BIOCHEMISTRY
& CONVENTIONAL AGRICULTURE IN FAVOR OF ORGANIC FARMING -- ADVOCATING CHEMICAL-FREE FARMING AS A MEANS
OF PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT & REDUCING CANCER RATES -- CROP YIELDS UNDER ORGANIC FARMING COMPARED TO
THOSE UNDER CONVENTIONAL FARMING -- CANCER RISKS UNDER EACH OF THE TWO TYPES OF AGRICULTURE -- THE
DANGERS OF FOLLOWING THE ADVICE OF POLITICAL LEFTISTS & ENVIRONMENTALISTS
FULL STORY:
The newly published Report of the President’s Cancer Panel puts the following quote in bold type:
“I believe it is time for a new human experiment. The old
experiment is that we have sprayed pesticides which are
inherent poisons . . . throughout our shared environment.
They’re in our amniotic fluid . . . They’re in our mothers’
milk. What is the burden of cancer that we can attribute
to these poisons in our agricultural system? We won’t
really know the answer until we do the other experiment,
which is to take the poisons out of our food chain,
embrace a different kind of agriculture, and see what
happens.”
Sandra Steingraber, biologist and author of the book
Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer
and the Environment.
Unfortunately, Dr. Steingraber’s ignorance of biochemistry and agriculture is breathtaking. We’ve actually been running
a long-term experiment on chemical-free farming for about 5,000 years: It’s called Africa. Africans don’t produce much
food, and the little food they produce comes at a fearful price in human stoop labor, horrifying soil erosion, and increasing
displacement of wildlife by low-yield crops.
Africans get cancer at an alarming rate even so — though many die too young for the old age cancers. In Kenya, where
Mr. Obama’s father lived, the life expectancy is 20 years shorter than America’s 78 years. Cancer has recently made the
“Top Ten Killers” list, but Kenyans worry more about the epidemics of malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis.
Don’t look for any new science in this new President’s Cancer Report. There isn’t any. The report includes much talk of
the precautionary principle, and how we might begin to find these “hidden” cancer sources. It’s just the same old fears
and alarms that have circulated since Rachel Carson. Indeed, Dr. Steingraber has been called “the new Rachel Carson.”
That’s no compliment; Rachel’s rant against DDT has cost more than 50 million needless malaria deaths.
Dr Graham Colditz, a cancer epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, urgently disagrees with the new cancer
report. He told Reuters, “Maybe 4 percent of cancer in the Western world is caused by contaminants and pollution.” He
wants more done to combat much larger known cancer risks, such as smoking and obesity
The new report recommends eating organic food. However, National Science Medal winner Bruce Ames reports that 99.99
percent of the carcinogens we swallow grow naturally in our fruits and vegetables — put there by Mother Nature to fend
off the insects, bacteria, and fungi. Eating organic food makes one ten-thousandth of a percent difference.
This chemophobia is another Leftwing Obama import from Europe, like the coming government health monopoly. Europe
is banning some 85 percent of its pesticide active ingredients — based on “theoretical risks” rather than “proven risks.”
Obama wants similar laws for the U.S.A., even though our rat tests overstate our real pesticide risks —deliberately — by
about 1000 percent.
Besides smoking and old age cancers, there has been no increase in cancer rates; but huge numbers of Americans will
live long enough to get (and hopefully survive) cancer. Dr. Steingraber is herself a cancer survivor
However, following Obama’s advice that we embrace organic farming would make it impossible for us to feed humanity
right now. Nothing in the plant world grows without nitrogen, and we have less than half enough manure — so we take
nitrogen fertilizer from the air. Lack of nitrogen and too much pest damage (especially weeds) cut organic crop yields by
about 40 percent, compared to the crop yields of conventional agriculture.
The African forced scenario is that mom and the kids spend their days out in the fields, pulling weeds by hand — and
skin cancer is among the most prevalent African cancers.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Health & Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production & Consumption
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years.
Readers may write Avery at P.O. Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421 or send him email at cgfi@hughes.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity