jdmann@cdp.uucp (David Yarrow) (10/14/89)
/* ---------- "Remember Alar?" ---------- */
/* Written 11pm 10/13/89 by David Yarrow(jdmann) in en.agriculture */
Source: Syracuse Herald, Friday, Oct 13 by J. Michael Kelly
THERE'S LIFE ON FARMS BEYOND THE ALAR SCARE
LAFAYETTE, NY - The pesticide scare that rocked the U.S. apple industry
last winter now is just a fading bad memory in orchards west of Lafayette.
Steven Morse, operator of the Beak & Skiff Farms Apple Hill store on
Route 80, who promoted the first-ever "NYS Cider Week" Thursday, said a
long line of shoppers usually greets him when he opens the doors at 10 am
on Saturdays and Sundays, and the store is crowded even on weekdays.
"Business is good," he said.
But Morse and other members of the Western NY Apple Growers Assoc.
aren't taking any chances. Cider Week, which starts Sunday, is one in a
series of promotions they're using to reinforce the once-unquestioned image
of apples as a healthy, natural food.
Thursday, an angelic group of first-graders from Moses DeWItt Elementary
School made short work of a peck of crunchy Empire apples, then sipped
cider fresh from the store's own presses.
Nothing remarkable about that, except for the TV cameras that zoomed in
on every bite and swallow - and the fact many U.S. school kids couldn't
find apples on their lunch menu last March. School principals in NY and LA
briefly banned apples from the menu after a CBS-TV "60 minutes" report in
late February alleged that apples might be unsafe to eat because they were
being sprayed with the pesticide Alar. The report claimed the chemical
caused cancer in laboratory rats.
In the ensuing days, dozens of prominent scientists criticized the
report, saying that Alar was not widely used in U.S. apple orchards, and
that it was not a danger to apple-eaters. But the damage was done.
Apple sales plummented by $1.3 million in one week in Washington, the
nation's leading apple-growing state. Comparable figures weren't available
in NY, but the same sort of harm occurred, Morse said.
"The Alar thing just snowballed," Morse said. "And it had a major effect
on our cider sales in the spring." Total sales weren't down dramatically,
but it took Beak & Skiff two months longer than usual to sell all of its
cider from the 1988 apple crop, he said.
This season, customers seem reassured. "Actually, I'm pleasantly
surprised," Morse said. "Nobody seems concerned about it anymore."
Susan Woehr, spokesperson for the Western NY Apple Growers Assoc., aid
members of the group are working hard to polish the squeaky-clean image
that they had taken for granted. "Our growers are using the newest methods
to produce top quality apples with fewer pesticides," she said.
Morse told the Moses DeWitt kids and other visitors Thursday the same
thing, in different words. He talked about apples as "nature's toothbrush"
and told adults about apples' high fiber content and abundance of
potassium. "That's what caused people to say 'an apple a day keeps the
doctor away'," he said.
=============================================================
COMMENTARY: This story is on the Business page, not Health, Nutrition, or
Consumer Watch. It presents a rosy picture in which all PR flaws are done
over in soft strokes of an editor's airbrush.
In fact:
Alar controversy got hot when Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
released "Intolerable Risk: Pesticides in Our Children's Food" to document
kids' vulnerability to pesticide residues on fresh produce. NRDC estimated
one in 4000 U.S. kids will develop cancer from Alar in apple products.
CBS 60 Minutes came along later and did 20 minutes on NRDC's report.
Then Consumers' Union reported Alar in 75% of 1988 apple juice.
And Meryl Streep told Donahue housewives to buy organic, and they did.
Stores, more responsive to consumers than scientists, banned Alar.
School boards, highly susceptible to housewives, banned Alar products.
EPA refused to concede scientific defeat, and refused to ban Alar.
UniRoyal, major producer of Alar, withdrew its product voluntarily.
In the end, farmers got the worst of it, as always, but apple demand is
so strong they sold out anyway.
Yesterday I heard Director of central NY Regional Farmers' Market blame
environmentalists for scares in the market. I pointed out environmentalists
didn't make 170 folks sick from aldicarb watermelons. He didn't get my
point.
I further insisted the #1 reason farmers want to quit chemicals is cash,
since most farms are in significant financial squeezes these days. Farmers
have serious need to cut expenses, and if they farm with fewer chemicals,
they cut a major expense.
This article and the Director's attitude both show chemical mentality in
agribusiness is neither defeated nor enlightened. Alar was a sneak attack
in the marketplace by eco-terrorists. They lost a good weapon, but they
haven't changed their minds and are digging in for a longer war.
The article portrays consumers as dumb, forgetful & ignorant of the Alar
controversy, as if to prove the "scare" was fabricated by eco-terrorists.
- prepared by David Yarrow, the turtle, for SOLSTICE magazine
***** SOLSTICE: Perspectives on Health and Environment, is published
bimonthly at 201 E. Main St Suite H, Charlottesville, VA 22901 804-979-4427
ps. Are consumers "dumb, forgetful & ignorant"?
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