When I told one of my environmentalist friends that I wanted to write an op-ed scrutinizing the organic farming industry and its avid following, I was worried that I would come off as an anti-liberal who supports unregulated agri-business and wants to sell my soul to tobacco corporations. Fortunately, since my feelings on the topic have nothing to do with either of these values, she actually welcomed the discussion of a subject so adored in the Macalester-liberal community and didn’t brandish any “true liberals only eat organic” sword in my face.

Among the reasons that I am critical of the organic farming industry are the blind following it has acquired, the sometimes questionable science behind it and the view that it is a panacea for no less than cancer, worldwide starvation, pollution and the corruption of agricultural business monopolies. In principle, innovative farming techniques with the goal of creating a cleaner, lower-impacted environment do not irritate me in the least. But as the daughter of two scientists, I have been taught to be skeptical of any scientific evidence put forth to me under the assumption that I will not understand it and thus will automatically accept it. Fear of the unnatural or unknown is often a part of the organic farming movement, and it is impractical and unfounded. The assumption that anything not invented by modern society is inherently purer or healthier is flawed, and for me represents the misdirected anti-intellectualism of many purist movements. While there is significant evidence for aspects of organic farming and organic products, the majority of its supporters, or at least those I’ve observed at Macalester, do not question the assumptions behind their support, and do not demand any depth of understanding of the science behind the practices. On top of that, while in theory the organic industry tries to eliminate false advertising and objectively inform consumers, even this haloed industry is still a market, with the necessary goal of turning a profit, and beyond that, an inroad into the larger farming industry. Our idealist aspirations for an altruistic organic industry are not only impractical, but also impossible to satisfy in the free trade economy of our society.

For students who are usually so critical of blanket assumptions and absolute benedictions of entire industries and beliefs, many Macalester students seem to lack any reasonable skepticism on the topic of organic farming. To herald an entire market as the answer to so many of the world’s problems is uncharacteristic of the critical thinking to which we aspire.

Yet my problem is not so much with the complete acceptance of organic farming into our liberal doctrine as with the general attitude of half-hearted open-mindedness at Macalester that it personifies for me. When I told my friend about my opposition to certain aspects of the organic farming industry, I betrayed a fear that I’ve developed since coming to Macalester that I thought I would never experience—that of being represented as an opponent to alternative thought. I grew up in an intensely conservative area. I became familiar with attacks on abortion rights, flag-burning, the theory of evolution, gun control and blatant homophobia, and I never grew immune to them. But out of this atmosphere and interaction with people whom I alternatively viewed as ignorant, closed-minded or misinformed, I acquired a capacity for tolerance and a will to understand opposing arguments, as well as a refusal to take any political stance at face value. So when I friend of mine here told me he had never expected to be friends with a Christian, I was, naïvely, shocked. Didn’t being liberal automatically make you tolerant and, if not understanding, interested in beliefs that countered your own? I found that the closed-mindedness for which I blamed conservatives for so many years was also a trait of the liberals I adored, including myself. The demand for critical knowledge of opposing viewpoints falters in an environment where we are used to hearing our every political sentiment echoed and enforced in those around us. The indoctrinization (though not the support) of organic farming is a symptom of this, and the refusal to contemplate (though not accept) an opposing belief or even an argument is the essential effect. I’m not suggesting that we accept ignorance; I’m suggesting that most of us have not adequately rejected it.