Attacking Mainstream Farming Unjustified and Plain Dangerous

“In this high-tech information age few look to the most basic industries as sources of national economic power. Yet no sector in America is better positioned for the future than agriculture–if we allow it to reach its potential.”

Thus begins a new article in Forbes Magazine by Joel Kotkin that is providing a breath of fresh air amidst the daily dose of anti-Ag fare that he openly calls a “troubling assault.”

The piece which touches on everything from pro-organic, anti-GMO,  and the green movement, to shutting off the water to California’s once hugely productive Salinas Valley is causing quite a stir online and in Social Media circles from Twitter to Facebook.

“A formula that works for high-end foodies of the Bay Area or Manhattan can’t produce enough affordable food to feed the masses–whether in Minnesota or Mumbai. The emerging war on agriculture threatens not only the livelihoods of millions of American workers; it could undermine our ability to help feed the world.”

Kotkin,  distinguished presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Legatum Institute in London, says the fact that the attacks on mainstream agriculture are leaching into the policy arena is perhaps the most disturbing development of what he call America’s Agricultural Angst.

Thanks Joel for taking the “ romantic model being promoted by Time and agri-intellectuals like Michael Pollan” and applying a dose of reality.