It's Not Easy Being Organic

It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Not Easy Being Organic

Graham Roumieu

THEY spring from a tree that I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ve nurtured from a sapling. I have protected them from deer, squirrels, insects and fungi, and fed them a healthy diet of compost and manure. So why do I feel so guilty about eating these apples?

Because they are not organic.

It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s not that I didn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t try. Maybe Whole Foods can sell organic apples, but I sure can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t grow \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'em. I labored mightily for several years to cultivate, first, organic apples; then minimally sprayed apples (spraying only in response to a pest invasion); and finally in desperation for home-grown fruit, I surrendered the high moral ground to the apple maggots, codling moths and fungi that were destroying my trees, and resorted to prophylactic application of a chemical wide-spectrum orchard spray.

It was not a decision taken lightly, and the first time I sprayed the trees I felt like I had let down an entire generation: my generation, the Woodstock generation. To be sure, I was not a flower child, but I consider myself an environmentalist — an environmentalist armed with a malathion-loaded spray gun. Is that a contradiction? As gardening season gets into full swing, consider what we might call the herbivore\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s dilemma: Should I grow and eat only organic vegetables?

An organic garden (or farm) does not come cheaply. I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m not talking only about financial costs. I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m referring to the human and — this may surprise some — environmental costs. On the human side, when bugs appear in my organic vegetable garden, I first use the most organic of treatments — my fingers.

When that proves insufficient (and it almost always does), I escalate to a pesticide containing pyrethrins and rotenone, substances made from the roots and stems of several tropical flowers, and favored by backyard gardeners and organic farmers. It is most effective, however, when directly sprayed on the bugs, as it has little if any residual effect. So it requires frequent spraying while the bugs are active (this is usually while I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m at the office, as the bugs and I follow the same schedule). Still, it is organic, so you get to feel virtuous in the garden.

Until, that is, you learn that rotenone has been implicated in Parkinson\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s disease. If that\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s disillusioning, consider another organic substance extracted from a tropical plant: strychnine. Nature, it seems, is really good at making poisons (just ask Socrates).

I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m no chemist, but is it possible that the manufactured chemical malathion — at least in the small quantities used in my garden — is as safe to use as the organic chemical rotenone? Plants have to literally be drenched (particularly if harboring hard-shelled beetles) daily in rotenone, while malathion can be used sparingly, and needs to be applied only occasionally. Both break down in the environment fairly quickly.

But neither one is really desirable. And if a little pesticide in the backyard is acceptable, tons of pesticides, running into rivers and streams, moving up the food chain, are not. Which brings us to the next quandary. There is, in fact, a technology available today that can drastically reduce if not eliminate the use of pesticides, natural or manufactured: genetically modified organisms.

Such plants are engineered with natural insect resistance and offer substantial reductions in pesticide use without the increased costs associated with conventional organic crops. Monsanto, for example, claims that over the last 10 years, use of its genetically modified seeds has reduced the application of pesticides by 172,000 metric tons. Yet such \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Frankenfood\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is anathema to the very people who are the strongest proponents of organic food.

Oddly enough, Monsanto achieved this apparent miracle by taking a page out of the organic playbook. For years, organic farmers have been using sprays containing Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a naturally occurring bacteria, different strains of which are toxic to certain insects. Bt is a favored organic pesticide because its toxicity is very specific, making it harmless to just about everything but the pest in question. By splicing the Bt gene that manufactures its toxic protein into the plant (say, corn or potatoes), the entire plant is rendered toxic to the pest, all without the use of pesticides.

At first blush this would seem like something an environmentalist would cheer, but suspicions abound about genetically modified crops. The most publicized one, especially in Europe, is over whether eating such foods endangers consumers. But the focus has been shifting lately from food safety to questions about the effects of modified crops on conventional agriculture.

For example, scientists and organic farmers worry that unlike Bt spray, which breaks down within days and is applied only when needed, the toxin in Bt plants is present all the time, and in all the plant\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s tissues. Thus it is only a matter of when, not if, some insects develop resistance to Bt. Insect resistance to Bt would do irreparable harm, not just to genetically modified crops, but to organic crops as well, because Bt sprays would be rendered useless.

Furthermore, what are the risks of cross-pollination of genetically modified crops with conventional plants? Is genetic engineering acceptable when used to increase yield, reduce weeding or simply improve flavor or nutrition?

There are no easy choices, for the gardener or the consumer.

I suspect that in the not-too-distant future, backyard gardeners like myself will have the option of planting genetically modified trees that offer the elusive dream of home-grown organic apples. But will the apple be offered by a savior or a serpent? As I gown up to spray my apple trees, donning face mask, hat and boots, I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m thinking that, like Adam, I may be ready to bite. What\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s the worst that can happen?

一个有机苹果引发的“血汗”

                           一个有机苹果引发的“血汗”

它们是从我培育的一棵幼苗上长出来的。我保护他不受鹿、松鼠、昆虫和真菌的侵害并用堆肥和粪肥来保证它们饮食健康。那我还为啥为吃了这些苹果而感到内疚呢？

因为它们不是有机食品。

并不是我没有尝试过培育有机食品。可能Whole Foods可以卖有机苹果，但是我肯定是种不了的了。我曾为之奋勇地劳动了多年，开始时候就是为了种植有机苹果，然后是小量农药喷射的苹果（那些喷雾仅仅为了驱走害虫而已），最后是绝望的回归到自家水果种植的行列中来。我以前的做法其实是把我的高尚道德情操奉献给了苹果蛀虫、生苹果蛀虫还有真菌们，而正是它们摧毁了我的果树。最后还是需要求助于化学合成的广谱防病害果树农药喷雾。

我并不是草草率率的做出决定的，其实早在我第一次喷射农药时候，我就深深感到我辜负了一整个时代的人：我的一代——伍斯托克的一代。准确来说，我并不是一个养花的小孩，不过我还是认为自己是一个环境主义者，一个用马拉息昂(一种农药)作为喷枪子弹武装起来的环境主义者。这是否有点自相矛盾呢？随着园艺季节的到来，就是思考我们的植物性食物的困窘的时候了：我们应该只种植和只吃有机蔬菜吗？

一个有机种植园来得一点都不便宜。我不是指财政耗费方面，我说的是人和环境代价的方面。在人的方面来说，当虫子出现在我的有机农场上时，我首先要用最有机的方法去处理它，那就是用手来抓走！

当发现那样做一点都没有效率时候（当然这几乎常常是这样的），我升级到使用含有除虫菊酯和鱼藤酮的农药，这两种物质来自热带植物的根和茎，非常受后花园种植者和有机种植的农民欢迎。这种方法非常奏效，然而，也仅仅是直接喷在虫子上时候才见效，同时，它只有极低的农药残留。所以这就需要高频的喷洒，尤其是虫子活跃的时候（这又常常是我在办公室的时候，因为我和虫子们有着同样的作息时间表）。尽管如此，它毕竟是有机食品，所以你才会在院子里感到这是道德的。

直到… …直到你知道了鱼藤酮与珀金斯症有关。如果你的理想这下子突然破灭了，那就尝试下另外一种从热带植物提取的有机物质：马钱子碱。大自然嘛，看来就是会造毒！

我不是化学家，但是不是人工生产的化学试剂马拉息昂（尽管我还是少量的用在我的院子里）就和有机化学试剂鱼藤酮一样安全呢？植物每天简直是湿透在鱼藤酮液体里面（尤其是要杀死硬壳的甲虫时），同时，马拉息昂也可以限制地喷洒，虽然只是不时的喷洒。这两者都使环境快速的体力透支。

然而这两者都不是真正希望的。就算少量的农药允许用在院子里面，但大量流入河流和小溪、向食物链挺进的农药是不允许的。这就让我们陷入了下一个困惑：基因改造食品，这个属于今天的科技，它能巨幅减低天然或者合成农药的使用。

这种基因改良的作物可以释放出天然的抗昆虫的物质，并且实质性的减少农药使用而又不提高传统有机食品的成本。举例子来说，孟山都公司声称在过去的10年，基因改良的种子已经减低了172，000吨的农药使用。然而，这些转基因食品却为那些有机食品的提倡者所厌恶。

     奇怪的是，孟山都公司在有机食品的剧本上创造了一次明显的奇迹。多年来，有机农业种植者一直在使用有苏云金芽孢杆菌（以下称作Bt）的喷雾.Bt是一种天然的细菌，是对特定昆虫有毒害作用的不同种的菌种。Bt由于它的毒性非常专一，只是对昆虫有毒性而受有机农药欢迎。通过接合Bt产毒素的基因入植株上，那么整棵植物都可以抵御昆虫而不需农药了。

     开始时候，应用该技术看来会让环境主义者兴奋不已，但是却他们对基因改良作物充满了怀疑，尤其在欧洲。最广为人知的讨论就是：吃了这种食物是否会影响消费者健康？不过最近的焦点由食品安全移向了基因改良作物对传统农业的影响。

     例如，科学家和有机作物种植者们担心不像Bt喷雾那样只是在需要时候使用而且几天就降解了，Bt植物的毒素会一直存在而且在植物的每个组织中。因此昆虫产生抗药性也只是一个时间的问题。而Bt抗性也会产生不可取代的危害，不仅是对于基因改良作物，还有那些需要用Bt喷雾来抗虫的作物。

     再有，如果这些基因改良作物与传统作物杂交后又怎样？当用来增产，减少杂草或者只是为了增加风味和营养时，是不是基因改良作物就可以接受了呢？

对于园丁和消费者来说，这都不是个简单的抉择。

我猜想，在不远的将来，像我这样的后花园种植者会有机会种植转基因作物来实现自己种植有机食品的难以理解的梦想。不过，这样的苹果会是个救世主还是撒旦？当我穿上长袍，带上防毒面罩，帽子和长靴来喷洒我的苹果树时，就像亚当一样，我会在想，也许要准备啃下一口了。那会发生什么最坏的事情呢？