A scathing response from John Jamieson, executive director of the PEI federation of agriculture and who hired Dr. Joe Schwarcz to come to PEI to give his presentation last weekend: It is not often that I feel compelled to respond to a Letter to the Editor but Joan Diamond’s letter on September 17th attacking the credibility of Dr. Joe Schwarcz has changed my mind. Ms. Diamond’s reference to Dr. Schwarcz as a “so-called expert” and “well-known shill for Monsanto” is completely false. Dr. Schwarcz has impeccable credentials. He has a PhD in chemistry and is the only non-American ever to win the American Chemical Society’s prestigious Grady-Stack Award for demystifying science. He also won Canada’s premier prize for lifetime achievement contributions to chemistry in Canada. Dr. Schwarcz has taught at McGill University for many years and currently teaches, among other courses, nutrition to McGill medical students. In the spring of 2014 his group at McGill offered an online university course on food that saw 32,000 people from around the globe take it. Dr. Schwarcz has authored many best-selling books and his current project is a collaboration on a healthy eating cookbook with the proceeds from the book being donated to cancer research in Canada. As far as being a “well-known shill for Monsanto”, Dr. Schwarcz has not received any funding or payment from Monsanto and if Ms. Diamond has evidence of this I challenge her to produce it. Had Ms. Diamond bothered to actually attend Dr. Schwarcz’s public lecture at UPEI she would have heard a very balanced and fair presentation on nutrition that did indeed dispel many myths on fad diets, cleanses, and miracle cures. When asked about pesticides, Dr. Schwarcz noted that both organic and conventional farmers use pesticides that are approved by Health Canada through rigorous processes. This is the same organization that approves the medications Canadians take every day. He noted that all pesticides are dangerous but when properly and legally used do no pose a threat to humans. There is no doubt that P.E.I. has environmental challenges that relate to farming but farmers and the industry continue to improve practices. Ms. Diamond would have you think that organic and conventional farmers spray for fun in an effort to make people sick. An absolutely ridiculous assertion. All Islanders have an impact on the environment and we all need to make improvements in our environmental stewardship. If anyone’s credibility needs to be questioned it is Ms. Diamond’s. This is a lady who claims to be afraid of pesticides and was on the front page of the Guardian complaining about her farm neighbour. Her neighbours are sixth-generation family farmers who call her every time they apply a spray. She had no problem trespassing onto the farmer’s field for a photo op. And guess what, she brought her daughter with her and allowed her daughter to walk in the supposedly pesticideladen potato field with shorts and flip flops. Does this sound like someone who is credible? When people do not like the message but can’t come up with a scientifically based response they attack the credibility of the messenger. This is exactly what Ms. Joan Diamond did when she attacked the credibility of award-winning Canadian scientist Dr. Joseph Schwarcz. theguardian.newspaperdirect/epaper/viewer.aspx
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 15:12:06 +0000
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