Organic Food, Free Trade, and the CEI Podcast

Organic Food

Prince Charles gave the keynote address at The Washington Post‘s “Future of Food” conference this week.

Senior Fellow Greg Conko responds to Prince Charles’ idealization of organic farming.

“Organic farmers also use plenty of chemicals — just ones that are lightly processed minerals such as copper sulfate, or ones derived from plants such as pyrethrum from chrysanthemum flowers. But, ounce for ounce, organic pesticides are just as toxic as modern synthetic pesticides. And in some cases, such as the organic fungicide copper sulfate, they are far more harmful to the environment. With only a few exceptions, organic pesticides control insects and plant diseases far less effectively than synthetic chemicals, so they must be used in much larger doses.”

Free Trade

Politicians justify protectionist trade policy by arguing that free trade kills American jobs.

Fellow in Regulatory Policy Ryan Young says that’s simply not true.

“There are 23,465,000 more jobs in America now than there were before NAFTA. This despite the last few years of hard economic times! So when someone claims that free trade agreements are job killers, they are either uninformed or lying. Neither option speaks well of the accuser.”

CEI Podcast

In the new CEI Podcast, Daniel Compton talks about the results of a new study on the effects of salt on the human body.

Listen here.