Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Truth in food?

The website "Truth in Food" has a commentary about farming, titled, "10 reasons why they hate you so." It caricatures the sustainable agriculture movement as being full of hate for farmers and includes the photograph below.

Here is my comment submitted to the site.
You can win an argument against haters any time. But, so much more of the criticism of modern industrial agriculture is thoughtful and worth reading. It is fair to ask how we can feed ourselves in a way that doesn't sacrifice the future for our children and grandchildren. You won't find hate in the writing of Michael Pollan or the movie Food, Inc. It makes me wonder if you are largely fighting just a straw dummy.

And that brings me to ask, where did you get the top photograph of the protester? The alt text says "top news photography." Is that posed or photoshopped? Who took the photograph and when?

You can win an argument against the boy with the sign in the picture. But I wonder if he is even real. In any case, he isn't representative of a movement.
Update: edited slightly 9/30, 1:45 p.m.

4 comments:

  1. It looks like this "truth in food" site is a form of advertising for this public relations firm. They're make their (very comfortable, I'm sure) livings from stuffing and fighting straw dummies, and probably have no plans to resort to thoughtful dialogue (which pays much worse).

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  2. Oops, my tag didn't work. I meant, this firm:
    foodchaincommunications.com

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  3. It is interesting, though, that they seem to have a genuine comment section. The policy student in me wants to know why this site would post critical comments while another astroturf site might not?

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  4. He who has the gold rules. Whichever side of whatever issue, it is the gold, held individually or collectively.

    "Controversy erupts over Michael Pollan's Poly lecture" - Kathy Johnston
    http://newtimesslo.com/news/3411/controversy-erupts-over-michael-pollans-poly-lecture/

    "Bentham vs. Hume" - David Brooks
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/opinion/06brooks.html

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