By
Rick Tolman,
Chief Executive Officer, U.S.
National Corn Growers
Association (NCGA)
The prolific and talented author
and contributor to
The New York Times, Michael
Pollan, is at the center of a
self-initiated movement to redo
our nation’s food system. The
movement is built on a platform
of opposing biotechnology and
conventional agriculture –
especially animal ag – while
promoting the slow food
movement, local production and
organics. He is a frequent
critic of corn production and
puts it at the epicenter of his
axis of food evil.
Pollan is very persuasive in
written and oral presentation
and has embarked on an active
and aggressive speaking tour and
campaign to sell his books
(“Omnivore’s Dilemma”; “The
Botany of Desire”, etc); help
promote films that espouse his
philosophy (“King Corn,” “Food,
Inc.”) and lead a movement to
revamp the U.S. food system.
Pollan’s arguments have
resonance and appeal with
consumers and the general public
and they have garnered growing
support among the urban elite
and more extreme environmental
groups. His books and articles
are increasingly well read and
widely quoted by the
“influential” class in our
society.
At another end of the spectrum
is Norman Borlaug, an American
agronomist, humanitarian, Nobel
laureate and the father of the
Green Revolution. Borlaug is one
of only five people in history
to have won the Nobel Peace
Prize, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom and the Congressional
Gold Medal. According to
language contained in the
official Congressional Action
that awarded the Gold Medal to
Borlaug, "Borlaug has saved more
lives than any other person who
has ever lived, and likely has
saved more lives in the Islamic
world than any other human being
in history."
Borlaug is 95 years old. He is
still a distinguished professor
of agronomy at Texas A&M
University. He continues to
speak out in support of modern
agriculture and the need for
advancements to address world
hunger. He is the founder of the
World Food Prize, an
international award recognizing
the achievements of individuals
who have advanced human
development by improving the
quality, quantity or
availability of food in the
world.
Last month, Borlaug wrote an
editorial that was published in
the Wall Street Journal, titled
“Farmers Can Feed the World,”
where he argued that “better
seeds and fertilizers, not
romantic myths, will let them do
it.
In what I took as a direct
reference to the type of
movement that Pollan so
persuasively espouses, Borlaug
said the following: “Even here
at home, some elements of
popular culture romanticize
older, inefficient production
methods and shun fertilizers and
pesticides, arguing that the
U.S. should revert to producing
only local organic food. People
should be able to purchase
organic food if they have the
will and financial means to do
so, but not at the expense of
the world’s hungry—25,000 of
whom die each day from
malnutrition.”
Pollan is a very talented and
well respected author and is
very driven in his beliefs. Much
of what he says is true or based
on fact, but his artful mixing
of fact and fiction lead to very
serious and erroneous as well as
naïve and dangerous conclusions
and recommendations. I am
reminded of the language that
Rick Berman, Executive Director
of the Center for Consumer
Freedom, used several years ago
when commenting on a movement
very similar to that of
Pollan’s: “Sometimes
self-indulgent utopianism is
harmless. Not here. As a wise
man observed, ‘The boy throws
the stone in jest; the frog dies
in earnest.’ The consequences of
this ideological lark, exploited
by old-fashioned greed, could be
more than dead frogs.”
Pollan’s movement needs to be
aggressively countered with fact
and reality to our general
consumer population who do not
know any better and have been
seduced by his skill with words.
For, as Borlaug says, now is not
the time to be limiting the
tools available to our farmers
and ranchers, as we need a
second green revolution. As he
says, “given the right tools,
farmers have shown an uncanny
ability to feed themselves and
others, and to ignite the
economic engine that will
reverse the cycle of chronic
poverty.”
U.S. farmers have an outstanding
track record of doing just this
and will continue as long as we
don’t allow ourselves to become
apologists for or victims of
“Pollan Drift.” Farmers and
ranchers – speak out! If you
have not read it, please read
“The Omnivore’s Delusion” by
Missouri farmer Blake Hurst.