Organics versus conventional: While it’s true that organic produce costs more, the article “Organic or not, eat plenty of vegetables,” Feb. 2, is simply a promo piece to eat more produce. It completely ignores the deferred and cumulative costs of producing fruits and vegetables conventionally.
Much research is being done, including at Oregon State University, into the very complex and little-known soil food web. Use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, inorganic mulch materials and other unsustainable farmland practices drastically alters soil texture and fertility, and severely limits the mind-boggling diversity of invertebrate and micro biotic life that normally thrive there. Irrigation water and rainfall take these chemicals and spread them far beyond the fields, impacting our air and water (surface and ground) and those who live there.
Long-term consequences are unknown. Clean air, water and arable farmland are very finite and increasingly fragile resources, vital to all. As a community newspaper, please include broader perspective and more context when covering such a vast, complex subject that includes complicated tradeoffs.
Elizabeth Stepp, Southeast Portland
Two types of ignorance: A friend recently asked me why I felt compelled to participate in the Portland Women’s March.
When I graduated from college in 1992, I was fortunate to have a full time job, albeit one with a low salary and delayed benefits. I was no longer a dependent of my parents and, therefore, ineligible to remain on their health insurance plan. A routine medical appointment at a Planned Parenthood clinic, where I went because it was the only affordable option for someone with no health insurance or disposable income, resulted in an abnormal gynecological exam, which, if ignored, would have likely resulted in cervical cancer and infertility. The dignity and respect with which I was treated by the medical professionals there rivaled and, in some cases, exceeded, the care and compassion I have received from my own doctors in the many years since. My condition was successfully treated and I have had no further complications.
There are two types of ignorance: (1) because you don’t know; and (2) because you don’t care. If sharing my story will educate just one person who falls into the first category, then I am glad I did it. Our president and our congressional leaders want to withdraw support for an organization that, quite possibly, saved my life, and those of countless others. They fall into the second category because of their opinions, beliefs and “alternative facts.” And they are why we need to march.
Women are the wall for which this administration will ultimately pay.
Molly Bradley, Hillsboro
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