Farm Management essay 1500 words

ARE 140: Farm Management · Winter 2020 · Reader Support for Book No. 5 1

READER SUPPORT FOR BOOK NO. 5 On Corruption

Poison Spring E. G. Vallianatos with McKay Jenkins with McKay Jenkins Bloomsbury Press, 2015

E. G. Vallianatos wrote Poison Spring a half-century after Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring to make public the state of corruption at the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency he documents as captured by the chemical industry it was charged with regulating. Vallianatos’ authority comes from his 25-year employment with the EPA from 1979 to 2004, in a position and in a time where fellow employees and scientists shared their documents and experiences with him, with a freedom that he says is now no longer possible within the agency. He writes about the corrupting power political administrations have over the EPA, and he writes about the revolving door phenomenon, wherein people move from managerial positions in the agency to the industry and the reverse bringing the power of those relationships with them. Vallianatos, who has a PhD in history and studied the history of science at Harvard, brings a broad background in agriculture to his story, having done research in Latin America documenting the “Green Revolution” that introduced industrial technologies to peasant cultures and its aftereffects.

Vallianatos’ supporting co-author McKay Jenkins is Professor of English, Journalism, and Envi- ronmental Humanities at the University of Delaware and is himself the author of numerous books and articles examining agriculture and the environment. Jenkins outlines his thoughts on the struc- tural changes over time in American life that brought us to where we are today in an interview on The Higherside Chat host Greg Carlwood, who took his personal fascination with conspiracy theories and developed it into a popular podcast, distinguishes himself as an interviewer by actually reading and studying his interviewee’s books.

Poison Spring was published in 2015 at a time when Americans were losing faith and trust in their regulatory institutions, even as they looked even more to those same institutions for solutions. Activists, thinkers, law firms and ordinary citizens stepped up to counter the damaging effects of corruption and protect themselves and others though a variety of means, such as: safeguarding free speech and open access to the information and transparency needed to make wise choices; developing and supporting localization and its familiar, direct relationships over centralized, distant, top-down control; championing self-sufficiency and independence over dependency; finding power in the marketplace through the market differentiation of goods and services; seeking access to science and developing personal knowledge; and participation in the United States court system. Below are described a selection of people and organizations that are integrating these various approaches to counter corruption, particularly in agriculture, food systems and related health.

A number of the players described below make use of and participate in the civil court system, as distinct from the criminal court system. The criminal courts, governed by the penal codes, lead to fines and jail time, while the civil courts, governed by the civil codes, do not require a crime to be proved, but rather examine fair dealings and good faith in personal affairs and commerce; wrong-doing here is measured in dollar damages. Further, a civil case, initiated by a plaintiff’s lawsuit, requires a lower standard of proof (a preponderance of evidence) than a criminal case (beyond a reasonable doubt). Plaintiff attorneys serve a vital function in the American system in bringing corruption and wrong-doing to light.

Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman is one such prominent plaintiff firm. Baum Hedlund participated in the recent successful trials against Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) concerning their glyphosate-based herbicides. Listen to the keynote speech by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at

2 ARE 140: Farm Management · Winter 2020 · Reader Support for Book No. 5

the EU Parliament Greens Hearing on Pesticides, in September 2018 following the first glyphosate trial; RFK, Jr describes for the Europeans significant aspects of the American judicial system— the Daubert Standard rule of evidence, the discovery process—and recalls his meeting with Silent Spring author Rachel Carson when he was a little boy and his satisfaction in bringing justice forward.

Investigative journalist Cary Gillam, whose book on glyphosate won the 2018 Society of En- vironmental Journalism Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award, seeks to uncover corruption in her reportage, specializing in food and agriculture: 〈carygillam .com〉. “Glyphosate Girl” is a blogger with a business and finance background who became interested in glyphosate when her own microbiome and health were affected; learn about her perspective here 〈glyphosategirl .com〉. Her blog, which provided day-by-day coverage of the first three glyphosate trials is of particular interest to those who want to learn more about our legal process.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) seeks to protect the market differentiation of organic products in filing a lawsuit against the USDA for their failure to put in effect the new organic livestock and poultry regulations; see Lawsuit against USDA to defend organic advances for a brief introduction. The Center for Food Safety is busy filing civil suits of its own, and has lots to say about a lot; see What’s New on their homepage for an overview of their activities. The Cornucopia Institute watchdogs organic marketing, providing scorecards for various agricultural products rated on criteria important to organic consumers, with the goal of supporting marketing for organic family-scaled farmers.

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a grassroots organization established in 1998 when the National Organic Program (NOP) was being drafted amid controversy, continues to be active defending the integrity of organic against corruption; OCA offers news and alerts.

Jeffrey Smith is the creator of the Institute for Responsible Technology, whose stated goal is to remove GMOs and glyphosate from the American food supply. Smith strategically works to educate consumers in their buying decisions so as to reach the “tipping point” when the food companies stop buying commodities produced with these technologies because of their market relationship with consumers. To acquaint yourself with this influential player, you can watch his video interviews with the personable Brent Wisner, the young lead trial attorney in the seminal glyphosate trial, available on ResponsibleTechnology.org under the title Discover the Truth: Behind the Scenes from the Landmark Monsanto Trial.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, whose successful and prominent website mercola.com rivals the National Institute of Health (NIH) for novel daily hits and repeat visitors, advises his visitors to “take control of your health” as the rational response to what he sees as widespread conflict of interest and corruption in food and health. Mercola echos the words of President Dwight D. Eisenhower who warned Americans in 1961 of the growing power of the “military-industrial complex”, as he describes the current dominance of the “Big Six”: the banking, pharmaceutical, big agriculture, military-industrial complex, energy and media industries. Mercola then offers encouragement, advising his reader that your power as an individual lies in your own informed choices, beginning with your food; see his post Don’t Panic About Politics – Realize Where Your True Power Lies Instead.

Toby Rogers is a political economist, studying the intersection of politics and economics. Look- ing at the declining health of Americans, especially children, Rogers focuses on the autism epidemic, and given that the causes of autism are now understood, asks why public health authorities, thus far, have failed to ban or restrict the toxicants that have been shown to increase autism risk? In his 2019 thesis The Political Economy of Autism, Rogers shows that capitalism has transformed science and medicine from a focus on use values to a focus on exchange values; regulation is largely a reflection of political power not scientific evidence; and cultural and financial capture are block- ing the sorts of regulatory responses necessary. The abstract of Roger’s thesis (page vi) briefly summarizes his work, and his 35-minute interview with Del Bigtree on YouTube, Autism the Next

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Great Depression, fills out the story, specifying the toxicants involved (includes glyphosate and other agricultural pesticides) and the catastrophic rising costs to society. The interview ends on a positive note.

Rogers acknowledges that the regulatory agencies are indeed captured and that it is not a good plan to wait for the federal government to wake up. Rather, this political economist sees the United States as a great laboratory for democracy with its 50 states, structured as they are, each with their own government and rights, and expects the needed change to emerge from these smaller political units. He describes a sort of grassroots epidemiology arising from below today, and sees this as a remarkable moment in the history of our democracy, which he trusts will continue. Rogers, in valuing this structure, is looking at the United States’ inheritance from the Iroquois Confederacy, a centuries-old functioning democracy remarkable for its endurance. See Franklin and the Iroquois Foundations of the Constitution for more.

Be sincere, believe in what you’re doing and always be truthful. The truth always prevails in the end. —Brent Wisner, 2018