Nothing starts a food fight like ‘Organic’

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When I wrote a column recently about my questions about organic produce, I expected that I’d get a lot of mail. Especially after I started with the statement: ‘I don’t believe in organics.’

Organics is an article of faith for a lot of people, and what I had to say was pretty far from the accepted dogma. Still, it was something I thought really needed to be said, and if, after more than 20 years of covering farming and food issues for The Times, I wouldn’t say it, who would?

So when I opened my e-mail the morning the column ran, I had donned my asbestos undershorts, as we kids say. But a funny thing happened on the way to the firestorm.

There was plenty of mail, to be sure -- probably more than I’ve received for any story that didn’t involve salt and turkeys. But the amazing thing was: Most of it was positive. I mean an overwhelming majority -- like by a ratio of 5 or 6 to 1.

Turns out, it seems like this was something a lot of folks have been thinking, but they were just waiting for someone else to be dumb enough to say it out loud first.
-- Russ Parsons
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