Please
tell your local Public Radio Station to drop the program
Marketplace (if it carries it) because it stepped over the line on
May 4 by broadcasting a biased and inaccurate story that sounds as
if it was written by its major underwriter: Monsanto Inc.
Read the transcript, read the comments. This is not journalism. This does not belong on public radio. Please forward.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/05/04/pm-the-non-organic-future/
This piece begins by quoting demographic data from the United
Nations and continues to uncritically report that organic
agriculture cannot feed the world's growing population.
Too bad
the Marketplace reporter didn't bother also look at a report by the
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that concludes that a
broad scale shift to organic agriculture can produce enough food on a
global per capita basis to feed the world’s population. The FAO
Report strongly suggests that a worldwide shift to organic
agriculture can fight world hunger and at the same time tackle
climate change, benefit local economies, protect the environment and
improve human health. For more info go here:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FAOPromotesOrganicAgriculture.php
Anna Lappe, a globally respected author on food issues, commented on
the transcript of the story on the Marketplace website "I appreciate
many of the comments posted so far. I, too, was highly disappointed
that this segment presented a contested position—sustainable farming
cannot feed the world—as fact, when there is a growing global
consensus that the opposite is true"
We urge you to contact your local public radio station if it airs Marketplace and ask that this program be dropped.
For Eastern Washington State listeners, that would be a
friendly email to President and General Manager Richard Kunkel rkunkel@kpbx.org.
For many others, you will have to look up the contact info for your local public radio station.
Public Radio, Drop Marketplace - It's Biased for Monsanto
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By Chrys Ostrander, Director of Farming Programs
People for Environmental Action and Community Health "Local Food for All", Posted May 6, 2011
