Dennis T. Avery

About the author: Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute, a not-forprofit organization that advocates practical approaches to public policy research. He is also the director of Hudson's Center for Global Food Issues and the author of Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming.

Despite the claims of organic farmers and their supporters, organic food is more dangerous than produce grown by conventional farming methods. Organic produce is unsafe because its farmers use bacteria-laden animal manure for fertilizer, they do not apply preservatives or chemicals that will remove dangerous bacteria, and they often do not utilize safe composting methods. These dangers are not widely reported, however, because the organic food lobby is politically powerful.

According to data compiled by...