
The Brief
Get Up To SpeedEating organic used to be a fringe commitment. Not anymore. The idea that the adage "you are what you eat" actually has merit, that America's industrialized food system is making consumers—literally, consumers—obese, diabetic and primed for heart disease, has converted millions of us into pursuers of the American Organic Dream: Eat Organic To Live Longer and Better. But many aren't buying it. Most consumers, for example. Although sales of organic food increased sixfold over the last decade, organics are still a tiny fraction of the food Americans eat. Perhaps that's because organic food can cost up to twice as much as conventionally grown? Perhaps it's because—as critics of the organic food movement argue—there's just not a lot of solid evidence that going organic makes you any healthier. This side says the race by food makers to slap labels like "farm-grown," "free-range," and "all natural" is more about catching a fad than upgrading our food in any meaningful way. Should we all go organic, and pay the extra that it costs, because few things are more important than our health? Or is the organic movement, and the firms cashing in on it, hawking a hoax, or at least grossly overstating the biological benefits to be had when the chicken that we eat is raised with some more legroom?
View Debate PageDennis Avery

- Director, Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues.
Dennis Avery, Canada Free Press, August 30, 2009
Dennis T. Avery, Hudson Institute, May 5, 2003
Dennis T. Avery, Hudson Institute, July 2, 2003
Avery A. Avery, Dennis T. Avery, Hudson Institute, November 16, 2002
Blake Hurst

- Published Freelance Writer, the Wall Street Journal, Wilson Quarterly, and the American.
Blake Hurst, July 30, 2009
John Krebs

- Principal, Jesus College, Oxford
James Randerson, Guardian, February 21, 2006
Charles Benbrook

- Research Professor, Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources
Contrary to often-repeated claims that todays genetically-engineered crops have, and are reducing pesticide use, the spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds in herbicide-resistant weed management systems has brought about substantial increases in the number and volume of herbicides applied.
More independent testing of GE crop safety is needed to (a) resolve lingering uncertainty over the safety of the GE traits currently on the market, and (b) develop advanced testing methods and protocols for application in the testing of future GE food traits.
With genetically engineered crops, the relatively modest decrease in insecticides is more than made up by the huge increase in herbicides.
Urvashi Rangan

- Director of Technical Policy, Consumers Union.