Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the September 29, 2004 issue of U.S.
1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Between The Lines
On the same day that we marveled at the organizational structure and
scrumptious, organic foodstuffs of the new Whole Foods supermarket on
Route 1, another publication was printing a story with a seemingly
contradictory headline.
The article, written by Abigail Leichman of the North Jersey Media
Group, a group of 35 weekly and several daily papers, and forwarded to
us electronically by Joe Blumberg, a publicist at Rutgers, was titled
"Critics say the ‘organic’ label doesn’t mean what you think."
The Wednesday, September 22, article took a more skeptical view of the
organic food industry:
"If anyone could make you feel like a dope for buying that pricey
organic lettuce, it’s Joe Rosen.
"A professor in Rutgers’s department of food science, Rosen headed up
a roster of speakers at a recent conference in Philadelphia titled ‘Is
Organic Food Healthier Than Conventional Food?’
"Rosen dismissed claims that organic products are safer, more
nutritious, and better for the environment as ‘science by press
release.’ He and other impressively credentialed speakers cited faulty
research methods, flawed statistics, suppressed information, and
biased funding sources for scientific studies. They said consumers are
being duped by meaningless buzzwords like ‘natural,’ ‘pure,’ and
‘healthy.’
"A toxicologist who works for Consumer Reports – a publication blasted
by Rosen as having a pro-organic tilt – got into a shouting match with
the professor. Two other presenters readily revealed corporate backing
of their own institutes or potentially conflicting interests, such as
the professor of meat science who also co-owns Nolan Ryan’s Natural
Tender Aged Beef. And the conference itself was part of a larger
meeting sponsored by the American Chemical Society.
"No wonder consumers are confused, said one of the presenters, Alex
Avery of the Virginia-based Center for Global Food Issues. ‘Are there
always two sides to an issue, or maybe five or six?’ he asked. ‘Any
conclusions should reflect a general view of the subject by a
mainstream body of experts.’"
As a close reading of the entire article reveals
(www.northjersey.com), there are at least a half-dozen sides to the
"organic vs. conventional" food story.
Our annual U.S. 1 Traffic Survey is another story that has multiple
sides. We began the survey back in the 1980s, when the wisdom was that
Route 1 traffic was bad and getting worse. Our survey quickly showed
another side of the story – that in some years it actually got better.
Now we might suggest that Route 1 traffic is a story with at least
five sides: morning northbound, morning southbound, evening
southbound, evening northbound, and off peak. Whatever side of the
highway you are on, we urge you to drive safely and slowly. As the
survey shows, the difference between the most congested times (the
southbound evening rush) and the least (an off-peak run) is only about
10 minutes. Enjoy the scenery.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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