Thomas R. DeGregori Presentation - The All-Natural BioEngineered Future of Humans as Omnivores: The Past as ProloguePRIVATE
Redesigning Animal Agriculture: Horizons in Livestock Sciencee 2005 CSIRO, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 3 October 2005
I - Humans as Biological Beings
1) Introduction - the Human Omnivore
2) Cultural and physiological view of meat eaters
a)We are inherently meat‑eaters as a product of the biological evolution that has made us human
1) - Large brain has high energy requirements
2) - Small hind gut requires food to pass through quickly
3) - Search for ripe fruit and hunting made us more intelligent - hypothesis with supporting evidence
b)Food Preferences of closest primates in preference order
1 - Meat
2 - Fruit
3 - Vegetables
3) Fire and the importance of cooking
a)Makes more nutrients accessible (net)
b)Kills harmful micro-organisms
c)Frozen meat from large winter kill becomes edible
4) The Paleolithic Diet - fat and fruit deficient
a)Fat deficient - women need fat to ovulate
b)Humans likely developed cravings for what was deficient
1) - Craving for fats
2) - Craving for sweet (sugar) as a proxy for fruit
5) Conclusion - The "all-natural" diet, defined as what our biological cravings would have us eat, would be loaded with fats and sugars. Woody Allen's quip about cheeseburgers and french fries (with a supersized coke) being health food in the middle of this century, would have been true for the paleolithic inhabitants. As a cartoon states it, if the paleolithic diet was so healthy, why was their life expectancy in the low 30s. If today, we make a conscious choice to eat a more balanced diet, it is not because it is "closer to nature" but because the scientific and technological knowledge which has given us these choices, has also given us the knowledge of what is beneficial and what is harmful.
II Origins of the Modern and the Organic (or Bio as it is called in Europe)
A 19th Century
1) Wöhler and the synthesis of the first organic compound - 1820s
2) Liebig and the use of minerals for fertilization - 1830s
3) Romantic reaction - from it couldn't be done (synthesizing an organic compound) to plants can't use it (inorganic minerals) to they are less nutritious (without any supporting evidence).
4)If you grow food in one place and eat it in another, then you are mining and exporting soil nutrient which has to be replaced.
B 20th Century - 1st three decades
4) Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer
5) Organic or Biodynamic agriculture initially a response to synthetic fertilizer - it is dead - lacks "vital" properties -Stiener's "biodynamics"
6) Vitalism and "rejected knowledge"
C 20th Century - late 1930s, World War II, 1940s
7 Large scale use of synthetic organic pesticides replacing a variety of other (called inorganic) pesticides many of which contained arsenic or nicotine.
8) Agriculture concentrates nutrients in an open field. These are also nutrients for fungi, viruses, bacteria, rodents, insects, birds etc. Plant must be protected.
D 20th Century - 1950s and beyond
9) Synthetic pesticides become focal point of opposition to modern agriculture and husbandry - the romantic "organic" opposition to modern agronomy over a century old at the time.
10) Plants as chemical factories
11) Work of Bruce Ames (and others) and two NAS/NRC reports argue that over 99% of the toxins that we ingest are products of the plants themselves and not of the pesticides used to protect them.
12) Organic agriculture not pesticide free, not even free of synthetic pesticides. [USDA (United States Department of Agriculture). 2002. The National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, Washington, D.C.: National Organic Program, Agricultural Marketing Service, United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NationalList/FinalRule.html.]
13) Plants in organic agriculture - less well protected, more plant toxins expressed???
14) The Hygiene Hypothesis
III 21st Century: 2000-feeding 6 billion, 2040-feeding 9 billion
1) In a free country, different marketing techniques are welcome! Organic and natural producers have a right to raise their animals as they see fit, and promote their products based on how they're raised/produced. These producers have become defensive, however, and have gone on the attack against conventional production, rather than proving their claims, which must be based on fact and science. In order to induce the consumer to pay a premium for their product, they have to either find fault with the conventionally produced food and/or identify some superiority in their own. Simply attempting to deny factually their claims of superiority brings a wrath of criticism of "organic bashing" and identifies one as a paid, corrupt, servant of industry. We will examine some of the specific claims made by the movement and counter them:
a) Better for the environment
b) Better for the animals
c) Better for consumers
d) Better for the ranchers
e) Better for our society
g) Better for the poor
2) Genetic Modification and Conservation Tillage - Transgenic Herbicide tolerant crops have allowed for the expansion of conservation tillage which conserves soil, water, biodiversity and saves fuel in addition to reducing pesticide use. In addition to the absolute reduction, glyphosate is used instead of other "synthetic herbicides that are at least three times as toxic and that persist in the environment nearly twice as long" (Fernandez Cornejo and McBride, 2004, 28, see also ED 2004 for comparative figures on the toxicity of glyphosate compared to pesticides used in either conventional or organic agriculture such as copper sulphate).
Glyphosate binds to the soil rapidly, preventing leaching, and is biodegraded by soil bacteria. In fact, glyphosate has a half‑life in the environment of 47 days, compared with 60‑90 days for the herbicides it commonly replaces. In addition, glyphosate has extremely low toxicity to mammals, birds, and fish. The herbicides that glyphosate replaces are 3.4 to 16.8 times more toxic, according to a chronic risk indicator based on EPA reference dose for humans (Fernandez Cornejo and McBride, 2004, 28).
What Science and Technology have provided to our society and the world:
1800 - 800 million humans
1900 - 1.6 billion humans
1960 - 3 billion humans
Today - 6.3 billion humans - population doubled, food supply still had a 30% + increase in per capita food consumption with an increase of land under cultivation from 1960 to 2000 of only about 7%. Demand for food increasing faster than population as people are wanting more meat, milk, eggs, cheese etc.
Circa 2040 - 9 billion humans - need to do it without bringing more land under cultivation.
We live longer, are better fed and healthier and have more choices today than ever before.
2) Some Bad News for Bad News Bandits
Bad news for the proponents of organic food was recently released by the UK Food Standards Agency - Baby Food Survey on Dioxins and Dioxin like PCBs in Baby Food (FSA 2004a&b&c). "While many parents are prepared to pay a premium of up to an extra 20p, or 30%, for a jar of organic food, the survey found that three of the top four products with the highest levels of toxins were organic, while none of the 10 baby foods with the lowest toxin levels had the organic label" (MacLeod 2004). Even though the study did show "that toxins in the food were well within the levels recommended by scientists even for babies," one wonders whether the organic proponents interviewed by a reporter would have been so low‑keyed if the findings had been reversed (MacLeod 2004).
In one example, an organic shepherd's pie had 90 times the level of the chemicals of its non organic equivalent. In addition, while fish products have recently been the focus of considerable criticism over their levels of PCBs and dioxins, the only non organic fish product tested had the lowest level of toxins, while the organic fish products were among the most affected by the chemicals (MacLeod 2004).
Higher levels of dioxin have been consistently found in the meat and eggs of free range chickens in Europe and the UK. Searching the BBC webpage with the words - chicken, eggs and dioxin - will bring up numerous references to dioxin associated with free range chickens including an interview with a UK scientist who linked dioxin contamination to contact with the soil outdoors. The same can be said for the near 100% incidence of Salmonella found in Danish and other studies of free range chickens. Truly free range means a greater potential for contact with disease vectors.
In spite of claims that organic meat and produce are bursting with flavor lacking in the conventional products, I have yet to see any double blind tests of this thesis that is simply assumed to be true and beyond questioning. In an allied area, bottled water, there have been tests going back several decades, in which New York City tap water was often judged the best. More recently, on Penn and Teller's Showtime series, Bulls**t, fancy bottles were filled wit tap water from a hose behind a restaurant. The bottled water was on a list provided by a liveried water stewart. Needless to say, those who bought the water were able to "identify" distinguishing differences between the various bottles of tap water.
A provider of food products has to give the customer what they wish to buy even if the customer's judgement is largely or entirely based on myth. However, over the long haul, an industry has to educate their customers or face demands that are increasingly difficult to fulfill. "Organic food" consumers are increasingly allied with other groups that go beyond advocacy to seeking various legislative means of imposing their vision on everyone else. The actions against transgenics in agriculture is but the tip of an iceberg of a movement whose zeal and unshakable convictions can give rise to actions that are fundamentally authoritarian. What is at stake, is the right to use the biotechnology/nanotechnology means that hold the key to our future as humans and our ability to meet the food requirements of all of earth's inhabitants including those most in need.
IV Our Biotech Future - Better and Safer than Organic and It is Our Only Sustainable Option.
References
Meat, Fruit and Homo Sapiens
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Plants as Chemical Factories and the Hygiene Hypothesis
Ames, Bruce N. 1983. Dietary Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens: Oxygen Radicals and Degenerative Diseases. Science 221(4617)1256-1264, 23 September.
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Conservation Tillage and Food Safety
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Fernandez Cornejo, Jorge and William D. McBride. 2004. Adoption and Pesticide Use, pp. 26‑29 in Adoption of Bioengineered Crops By Jorge Fernandez Cornejo and William D. McBride. ERS/USDA (Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture) Agricultural Economic Report No. AER810. 67 pp, May 2002. http://ers.usda.gov/publications/aer810/aer810h.pdf.
FSA (Food Standards Agency). 2003a. Contaminated Maize Meal Withdrawn from Sale, London: Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom, Wednesday, 10 September. http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2003/sep/maize
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FSA (Food Standards Agency). 2004b. Dioxins and Dioxin like PCBs in Baby Food. London: Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom, Thursday, 8 July. http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/science/surveillance/fsis2004branch/fsis6004.
FSA (Food Standards Agency). 2004c. FSIS 60/04 Dioxins and Dioxin like PCBs in Baby Food. London: Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom, Thursday, 8 July.
FSA (Food Standards Agency). 2004d. Salmonella Warning on Organic Sprouted Alfalfa. London: Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom, Thursday, 15 July. http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2004/jul/alfafasalmonella.
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Biography
Dr. Thomas R. DeGregori, Professor of Economics, University of Houston and Board of Directors of the American Council on Science and Health has extensive overseas experience as a development economist including work as a policy advisor to donor organizations and developing countries. He is widely published - his most recent books include: Origins of the Organic Agriculture Debate; The Environment, Our Natural Resources, and Modern Technology and Agriculture and Modern Technology: A Defense (Blackwell Publisher for all three) and Bountiful Harvest: Technology, Food Safety, And The Environment (Cato Institute). Author's homepage is http:www.uh.edu/~trdegreg and email address is trdegreg@uh.edu.
More bibliographic documentation can be found in:
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2001 & 2003. Agriculture and Modern Technology: A Defense. Ames IA: Iowa State Press: A Blackwell Scientific Publisher.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. Bountiful Harvest: Technology, Food Safety and the Environment. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Origins of the Organic Agriculture Debate. Ames IA: Blackwell Publisher.
Selected other works by DeGregori of relevance to the presentation:
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1985. A Theory of Technology: Continuity and Change in Human Development. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1989. Goodbye to Nature: A Compendium of New Age Nonsense! Houston Chronicle, 12 November.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1996. Can Organic Agriculture Feed the World? Priorities: For Long Life and Good Health 8(4):12-17.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.717/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1997. At Christmas Dinner, Let Us Be Thankful for Pesticides and Safe Food, Houston Chronicle 15 December.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1998b. Review of Nicols Fox, Spoiled: The Dangerous Truths About a Food Chain Gone Haywire. 1997. Journal of Economic Issues 32(3):905-908, September.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1998. Back to the Future?: A Review Article. Journal of Economic Issues 32(4), December.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1999a. A New Perspective on the DDT Controversy. Technology: Journal of Science Serving Legislative, Regulatory, and Judicial Systems 6(2-3):249-254.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1999b. It Has Been a Very Good Century, But. Priorities For Long Life and Good Health 11(3):7-11,40.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.661/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 1999c. Nazis Versus Cancer: The Flip Side of Fascism? Priorities For Long Life and Good Health 11(4):12-15, 40.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.900/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2000a. The Sky Is Not Falling: The Culture of Baseless Fears, Priorities For Long Life and Good Health 12(1)
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.631/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2000b. Winter for Hitler, Priorities For Long Life and Good Health 12(1). http://www.acsh.org/publications/priorities/1201/letters.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2000C. Let Us Spray: Malaria and DDT in Mozambique, drkoop.com online and ACSH online. http://www.drkoop.com/news/focus/march/ddt_malaria.html, and American Council on Science and Health editorial - http://www.acsh.org/press/editorials/malaria032000.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. NGOs, Transgenic Food, Globalization and Conservation, Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 13(1):117-128, Winter.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. Warning -- Organic Foods Contain Higher Levels Of Chemical Dangerous To Infants, AgBioView online, 16 March.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. Dangers of the Salicylates in Organic Food, AgBioView online, 20 March.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. DDT and Chemophobia, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears.com, 14 June. http://healthfactsandfears.com/featured_articles/jun2002/ddt061402.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. Safe at the Plate? Unsustainable Anti‑Biotech Protests, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears.com, September 9, 2002.
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.165/news_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. The Deadly Perils of Rejected Knowledge, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears.com, September 13, 2002.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.412/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. When "Green" Policies Harm Humans, Cato Institute, October 3, 2002.
http://www.cato.org/dailys/10‑03‑02.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2002. Uncooked, Unhealthy, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, October 30, 2002.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.435/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. DNA And Reductionist Science, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, 25 March, 2003.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.565/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. The Postmodern Disconnect: Food Fetishism and Agricultural Reality, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, April 8, 2003
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.172/news_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Organic vegies get unwarranted and spectacular acclaim, Canberra Times, Thursday, 10 April 2003. http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=features&subclass=science&category=science%20feature&story_id=220725&y=2003&m=4.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Transgenics, 50 Years On: Proceedings of the Primary Resources Forum, 25 June 2003, Auckland, New Zealand, Royal Society of New Zealand, Miscellaneous Series 64, pp. 30-33.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Making organic produce sound safer: The Organic Difference, Such as It Is, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, 17 July, 2003.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.580/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Making organic cow manure sound magical: Scientific Agriculture vs. a Load of Manure, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, 17 July, 2003.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.579/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Making longer lives sound like a bad thing: Longer Lives, Sicker People?, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, 17 July, 2003.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.578/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Downplaying modern gains in health ‑‑ and height: Modern Diets Start Helping in the Womb, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears, 17 July, 2003.
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.570/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. The Green Revolutionary: An Interview with Vincent Heeringa, UnlimitedNet: Business with Imagination, Monday, 1 September, 2003.
http://www.unlimited.co.nz/unlimited.nsf/0/7D47630D8FCFB6AECC256D9D007F167F?OpenDocument&More=Biotech+Columns.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Toxic Shock, Tech Central Station. October 16, 2003. http://www.techcentralstation.com/101603B.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. The Fault Line in the Organic Debate, The Guardian (London), Saturday October 18, 2003, http://www.guardian.co.uk/editor/story/0,12900,1065654,00.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. BBC Interview on Organic Agriculture and Food Production, BBC World Today Program (UK and Mainland Europe and re‑broadcast by BBC World Service), October 2003.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. BBC Interview on issues of Genetically Modified Crops and Science/Evidence based decision‑making, BBC Today Program (daily between 0600‑0900 in UK and mainland Europe and re‑broadcast by BBC World Service), November 2003.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2003. Eco-Myth and Agricultural Reality, BioScience News & Advocate: Agriculture and Food, published online by the BioScience News and Advocate (New Zealand), 9 December 2003. http://www.bioscinews.com/files/news‑detail.asp?NewsID=5570.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Mad Cow and Madder Organic Agriculture, The American Council on Science & Health: HealthFactsAndFears.com, 20 January 2004,
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.69/news_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. 20 Questions for Foodphobes, The American Council on Science & Health: HealthFactsAndFears.com, 24 February 2004,
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.616/healthissue_detail.asp and at http://www.bioscinews.com/files/news‑detail.asp?NewsID=6441.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Recognizing a Giant of Our Time: Dr. Norman Borlaug Turns 90, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears.com, 22 March 2004,
http://www.acsh.org/news/newsID.625/news_detail.asp. Reprinted Rice World Vol. 4, No. 4, April 2004, p. 4.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. The New Green Science, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears.com, 22 March 2004,
http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.624/healthissue_detail.asp
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Organic Agriculture: Contribution to Feeding the World? Papers and Proceedings, 1st International Congress on Organic Animal Production and Food Safety, pp. 85-90, Kusadasy‑Turkey, 28 April ‑ 1 May, 2004.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Progressive Genetics: Genetic Engineering Not Significantly More Dangerous Than Conventional Breeding, The Daily Cougar (University of Houston), Vol. 69, No. 141, p. 3, Monday, 3 May, 2004. http://www.uh.edu/campus/cougar/Todays/Issue/opinion/oped1.html.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Julia Child's Legacy for the Future, American Council on Science and Health: Health Facts and Fears.com, 16 August 2004. http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.436/news_detail.asp.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2004. Pure But Not Yet!, Butterflies and Wheels: Fighting Fashionable Nonsense, 18 August 2004. http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=76.
DeGregori, Thomas R. 2005. Organic Agriculture and Livestock, Beef Foodservice Symposium, Dallas, Texas, March 2005.