> What emerges from the arguments put at both ends of the anti-organics continuum -- as represented by Trewavas and Pollan, respectively -- is a tendency towards a false binary between organic and conventional agriculture, a fallacy of composition (or at least of hasty generalization) in which an idealized but problematic category (whether organic or conventional) is constructed in order to critique the category that is being defined in opposition. In Trewavas's case, and most certainly that of users who subsequently cited his article, a few items of specific evidence are generalized to establish a unitary category of good, scientifically proven, 'non-organic' agriculture while disqualifying the category of 'organics'. In Pollan's case, false categories of both organic and conventional agriculture emerge -- with the differences between the two collapsing as 'organic' increasingly converges on conventional agriculture as the former is commercialized. 

> Conventional farm management seems to comprise a range of approaches .from what some call 'conservative conventional' (farming that is well within the capacity of systems) through to highly 'productivist conventional' (that is, maximum output from maximum input strategies). We need to recognize that there is an important group of conventional farmers who are already strongly committed to a range of environmental goals on their farms. Due to the predominance of 'conventional' producers in many farm sectors, this latter group might actually be responsible for the greatest positive impact on overall landscape management. Put simply, moderate change by the majority in the industry has the potential to exceed the impact of major change by a small minority. 

> Ultimately, the organic mythologies debate deserves credit for creating the context in which these subsequent and more nuanced questions about the sustainability of commercial agriculture systems have been recognized. This was achieved by the organics movement, in part, through the introduction of a serious 'alternative' to mainstream agriculture and by establishing a precedent that eroded many of the taken-for-granted certainties and categories on which traditional agricultural science was founded. In creating the possibility of alternative ways of both producing and retailing food, organics opened up a window not only for its own particular variant on agricultural production, but also for a proliferating range of alternative understandings and insights into how we organize and value agricultural systems. The result is that the world of sustainable agriculture is undergoing a period of creative elaboration across institutional, consumer, political and methodological levels. 

Examining the Mythologies of Organics: Moving beyond the Organic/Conventional Binary
Hugh Campbell, et al
Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability   May 2012
edited by Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons, Tabatha Wallington

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