Alex Avery (researcher)
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Alex Avery is the director of research and education with the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute,[1] where he conducts research on the environmental impacts of different farming systems. Alex is an outspoken critic of organic food and farming and the author of the book The Truth About Organic Foods,[2][3] a book critical of organic food practices.
Avery has stated that organic foods "are clearly no safer, no more nutritious, no more healthful -- there are zero advantages for consumers."[4] He disputes the conclusions of studies that promote organic foods, believing them to be statistically insignificant due to large natural variability, irrelevant because of a lack of understanding how a poorly-understood nutrient is used by the body, or biased by the interests of the organization the researcher works for. The New York Times pointed out that Avery's own employer has received financing from Monsanto, DowElanco and the Ag-Chem Equipment Company.[4]
He appeared on or was quoted by CNN, Fox News, Showtime (Penn & Teller's show), the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Cosmos Magazine, Readers Digest (Canada), Washington Times, Des Moines Register, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Regulation Magazine, and the BBC's science and tech magazine Focus. Avery has recently written a chapter for a book on organic pesticides published in 2007 by the American Chemical Society and presented at international meetings of the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Phytopathological Society, Australian Weed Science Society, and American Chemical Society. Avery is also an Advisory Board Member for Hanover College's Center for Free Inquiry.
[edit] Publications
- The Truth About Organic Foods, November, 2006
- "The Environmental Safety and Benefits of Growth Enhancing Pharmaceutical Technologies in Beef Production," Center for Global Food Issues, November, 2007[5]
- "'Organic Abundance' report: fatally flawed," Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, December, 2007.
- "Food Wars," National Review Online, January, 2007[6]
- "Organic farming caused dust bowl," The Spokesman-Review.com, August 18, 2002.
- "Kill thy neighbor, Hezbollah and organic-food fanatics have some things in common," National Review [7]
- "The Deadly Chemicals in Organic Food," New York Post, June 2, 2001
- "Bring Back DDT, and Save Lives," Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2000
- "Infantile Methemoglobinemia: Reexamining the Role of Drinking Water Nitrates," Environmental Health Perspectives, July 1999
- "Red Meat Production Can Be Part of an Environmentally Sound Future," Journal of the American Dietetic Association, November, 1997
- "Farming to Sustain the Environment", Hudson Briefing Paper No. 190, Hudson, May 1996.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Alex Avery (English). Center for global food issues. Retrieved on 9 December 2007.
- ^ The Truth About Organic Foods (English). Henderson. Retrieved on 19 December 2007.
- ^ Die Wahrheit uber Bio-Lebensmittel (German). TVR Group. Retrieved on 19 December 2007.
- ^ a b Marian Burros (July 16, 2003). Eating Well: Is Organic Food Provably Better?. The New York Times. Retrieved on 27 December 2007.
- ^ The Environmental Safety and Benefits of Growth Enhancing Pharmaceutical Technologies in Beef Production (English). Hudson Institute. Retrieved on 19 December 2007.
- ^ Food Wars (English). National Review. Retrieved on 19 December 2007.
- ^ Kill thy neighbor. National Review. Retrieved on 28 December 2007.
