Dennis Avery

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For the Indiana State Representative, see Dennis Avery (Indiana politician)

Dennis Avery

Born October 24, 1936 (1936-10-24) (age 71)
Occupation Food policy analyst
Known for Support of biotechnology in farming

Dennis T. Avery (born 24 October 1936) the director of the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, where he edits Global Food Quarterly.

A food policy analyst for the past 30 years, Dennis Avery began his career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, served on the staff of President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission of Food and Fiber, and, prior to joining Hudson, was the senior agricultural analyst for the U.S. Department of State.[1] He is the author of several books, including the New York Times Bestseller Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years which he co-authored with Dr. S. Fred Singer of George Mason University in Virginia.

Avery is a prominent supporter of biotechnology, pesticides, irradiation, industrial farming, and free trade, as well as a long-time critic of farm subsidies.[2] He does not believe that DDT causes egg shell thinning in eagles.[3][4] According to critics he is the source of a claim that organic food is more dangerous to eat than food produced using chemical pesticides because of usage of animal manure in organic farming.[5][6] Specifically, in a 1998 article for the Wall Street Journal, he claimed the CDC had conducted studies showing that eating an organic diet carried an 8-times the risk of E. coli infection than eating a conventional diet. Despite the fact that the CDC had never conducted any such testing, the Avery article was widely quoted.[7] Avery contends that organic food is an expensive con with no demonstrated health or environmental benefits. The New York Times wrote about him: "Dennis T. Avery wants organic food to go away. And he doesn't care what it takes."[8]

Dennis Avery is the father of Alex Avery, who also works for the Hudson Institute.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Global Food Progress 1991 (1991)
  • Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming (August 2000)
  • Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years (February 2007)

[edit] External link

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dennis T. Avery (English). Hudson Institute. Retrieved on 26 October 2007.
  2. ^ Dennis Avery (English). Source watch. Retrieved on 30 October 2007.
  3. ^ Researchers Closer to Solving Disappearing Bee Mystery, Heartland Institute, March 1, 2008.
  4. ^ Greenpeace: A Long History of Poor Judgment, Dennis Avery, Heartland Institute, March 1, 2008
  5. ^ Trashing organic food (English). Source watch. Retrieved on 31 October 2007.
  6. ^ Saving the Planet With Pestilent Statistics (English). PR watch. Retrieved on 31 October 2007.
  7. ^ Organic Produce Production and Food Safety, University of California Cooperative Extention, Vegetable Research & Information Center.
  8. ^ Marian Burros. EATING WELL; Anti-Organic, And Flawed. Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
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