You can read the whole letter at the La Vida Locavore link. It’s heavy on generalizations and carefully crafted language, but light on honesty and openness. And no wonder. If they said what they really were and what they were really about, they’d never get a hearing.“CropLife Ambassadors” is their cute euphemism for pesticide industry lobbyists and shills. “Crop protection products” is their cute euphemism for pesticides. Presumably things grow better when covered with toxic, carcinogenic crap. Well, I know one thing that grows better that way: Big Chem’s profit margin. But veggies? Pppppfffft. It’s amazing how much you can do without that extra outlay (and without poisoning anyone or anything.) I grow my own veggies–and enough to give away to family and friends–without any pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. All I put on them is mine own humble compost (and the occasional tinfoil wrapper around my tomato stems, to baffle the cutworms). They grow like weeds. And the weeds? Well, some are edible, and those that aren’t, are still compostable. Not only that, but when you don’t dump pesticides on your plants, you actually encourage insects to control the pests. Stands to reason: How’s a praying mantis gonna eat your pests if it’s getting poisoned? And what about the honeybees (and other pollinators, such as bumbles, flies, wasps, butterflies, etc.)?And there is ample scientific evidence to support the idea that organic is the right way to go, be it for healthfulness, flavor and even–gasp–output. Yes, it’s true–organic crops produce better, all around. Who’da thunk? Us organic gardeners, that’s who. My full freezer and pantry don’t lie. By the time I finish using up last year’s frozen ORGANIC tomatoes, I’ll have started harvesting this year’s new crop!I’m pretty sure Michelle O. will give this inane missive a quick, polite read-through (perhaps narrowing her pretty eyes with skepticism), and then toss it like the smart lady she is. And then she’ll go back to her organic garden, confident in the knowledge that she’s growing a better crop. In every sense. PS: Things just got worse for Monsanto and Co. Germany just outlawed their Frankencorn.Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an “organic” garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama’s and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder. As a result, we sent a letter encouraging them to consider using crop protection products and to recognize the importance of agriculture to the entire U.S. economy.
YAY, Sabina!
YAY, Michelle!
ZOMG–just read the whole thing. GAHHH. They’re calling it “conventional agriculture” now? When did the farming people have done for thousands of years become ‘unconventional’?
And calling Michelle “Mrs Barack” doesn’t improve things.
Yeah…among other things, women taking their husbands’ names is actually a very NEW phenomenon, just like “conventional” farming. Maybe not new as in “the latest craze”, but new as in less than 500 years old. Both organic farming and females being their own women are old as the hills.
When I was a kid our family would grow a few corn, tomato, carrot and onion plants every year. We also had a cherry tree and an apple tree in the back yard.
We used modest amounts of organic fertilizer products, added water, pulled the occasional weed and ended up with some surprisingly tasty fruits and vegetables, even though we had very little gardening or farming knowledge.
I have never seen a Praying Mantis in gardens or yards but perhaps that’s because they are so perfectly camoflauged. Some people keep them as pets. A Mantis is intelligent enough so that it can learn to recognize and interact with friendly human hands.
I’m not surprised! I see them around here all the time. They look like little green aliens. They always startle me when they fly, and they really seem to like getting in my face. They’re fearless–probably because they know I won’t spray them!
BTW, skunks are great for pest control, too–they dig up grubs and eat them. And snakes and frogs are very handy for cleaning up larger pests, such as tomato hornworms. We have lots of them all around here.
I live in a very urbanized zone but in recent years thanks to better pollution control some of the wild critters have been making a comeback.
Racoons were always moderately numerous here because they can adopt to urban settings. Possum used to be somewhat rare but now they are becoming more common. They have about 50 teeth that make an impressive display when they feel threatened but they rarely bother humans. I have heard them make a curious and loud ratchetting warning sound when they have been pestered by dogs.
A few years ago I began to see the occasional skunk. Back then if you just passed within 20 feet of them in a car they would turn around and raise the tail as a warning. Today they seem to be more tolerant of humans and rarely go into the warning posture at those distances, but I still prefer to remain well out of their effective range when I see them.
Not long ago a beaver damn and lodge was seen in a small creek a few blocks from my home. For many years the creek was not very productive because of paint factory pollution until the factory was eventually shut down.