Agribusiness Executive Attacks Organic Food Movement

Michael Mack, the chief executive of the Swiss agrobusiness conglomerate, Syngenta, says organic farming does far more harm to the planet than conventional farming because organic methods often require 30 percent more land. Given the need to feed rapidly rising populations this century, increasing productivity on existing agricultural land is crucial, which means that conventional methods using chemical fertilizers and pesticides are superior to organic farming, Mack told The New York Times. “Organic food is not only not better for the planet,” said Mack, whose company sold $12 billion in seeds and “crop protection” technologies last year, “it is categorically worse. If the whole planet were to suddenly switch to organic farming tomorrow, it would be an ecological disaster.” Mack defended pesticides as being “absolutely not harmful” to humans or the environment and said modern farming methods had greatly boosted yields. Organic farming, he said, is the “productive equivalent of driving an S.U.V.”