WESTBORO, Mo. (DTN) -- With two words from a headline -- Omnivore's Delusion -- farmer Blake Hurst's views on commercial farming, food production and "agri-intellectuals" spread like wildfire. His thoughts raced across the internet, fueled by debate between foodies and aggies on blogs, Twitter and other social media outlets.

Missouri farmer Blake Hurst became an internet sensation after he wrote an article for the American Enterprise Institute that challenged people in the local, organic foods movement. Hurst highlights that it's impractical to rely on organic food, and it also would be more costly to consumers. (DTN photo by Chris Clayton)

Almost instantly, Hurst became agriculture's counterpunch to food author Michael Pollan. Since Hurst's article "The Omnivore's Delusion" appeared on the website of the American Enterprise Institute as a rebuttal to Pollan's best-selling book "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the northwest Missouri farmer's views have been praised by fellow farmers and dissected by foodies who question Hurst's ability to challenge Pollan's position on best food practices.

"The response was almost immediate," said Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. "I got calls from a number of state Farm Bureau presidents. I just happened to be talking to Bob Stallman about another matter and Bob brought it up."

Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, also thought it was a great article, Kruse said.

"It just really hit home with me and it did with an awful lot of people," Kruse said.

Hurst, 52, farms about 4,500 acres in northwest Missouri with his father, two brothers, his daughter and son-in-law and two nephews. Like many farmers, Hurst has read the Omnivore's Dilemma and understands some of Pollan's points. But like many commercial farmers, Hurst said he thinks Pollan's desire for perfect, organic, local food production is unrealistic in the grand scope of trying to affordably feed millions, if not billions of people.

"That's their point, that food is too cheap," Hurst said. "Maybe for you, but for a large part of the population, it's important to be affordable."

ORGANIC PRODUCTION TROUBLESOME

At the heart of Hurst's article he writes, "Critics of 'industrial farming' spend most of their time concerned with the processes by which food is raised. This is because the results of organic production are so, well, troublesome.

"With the subtraction of every 'unnatural' additive, molds, fungus, and bugs increase. Since it is difficult to sell a religion with so many readily quantifiable bad results, the trusty family farmer has to be thrown into the breach, saving the whole organic movement by his saintly presence, chewing on his straw, plodding along, at one with his environment, his community, his neighborhood," Hurst wrote.

"Except that some of the largest farms in the country are organic -- and are giant organizations dependent upon lots of hired stoop labor, doing the most backbreaking of tasks, in order to save the sensitive conscience of my fellow passenger the merest whiff of pesticide contamination. They do not spend much time talking about that at the Whole Foods store," the article states.

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"The point of the article is we can farm other ways, such as organic, but there are going to be costs to it," Hurst said. "Omnivore's Dilemma is a good book. Pollan, as good as he can be, glosses over some of those costs.

Hurst highlights the struggles that face California farmers, who idle tens of thousands of acres for vegetable production because of lawsuits over water rights and protection of a small fish considered endangered by the federal government and environmentalists.

"All of the food these guys say are good to grow, they are killing it," Hurst said.

FARM INCLUDES GREENHOUSES

Though he mainly grows corn and soybeans, the Hurst farm also has several greenhouses. In early September, Hurst, his daughter and wife were more likely to load mums into a trailer than ride on a combine.

"It started out almost as a hobby and it's kind of grown," Hurst said of the greenhouse business. "We never had a plan."

The garden business allowed his daughter and son-in-law to take part in the farming operation, Hurst said. Much of the business side of the gardening operation is run by his daughter, Lee.

Pollan emphasizes America's "cheap calories" and has even recently begun to weigh into the health-care debate, tying America's untold health costs to obesity and diabetes. Pollan calls it the western diet of starches and sugars. Hurst questions the logic, saying much of the problem with obesity comes from personal choices of what to eat and lack of exercise.

"I think he's way too hard on the western diet," said Hurst. "I don't think it's the source of all evil, but I think he is right that we are too fat and need to diet. When he raises that problem, it's legitimate and we ought to be thinking about it."

FEWER PEOPLE UNDERSTAND PRODUCTION

At a National Pork Producers Council meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Minnesota pork producer Randy Spronk said he had also gotten a lot of comments about Hurst's article, particularly as farmers and livestock producers lament that fewer people understand how food is produced.

"There are just a lot of misconceptions, and a lot of those books are feeding the misconceptions, and we have got to counter it," said Spronk.

Too many people now are buying into the notion that celebrity farmers such as Joel Salatin and his grass-fed Polyface Farms are the way every farm should operate, Spronk said. Salatin has been spotlighted by Pollan and others trying to criticize commercial agricultural production.

"Polyface Farms is a good marketing technique, but it's not going to help this country with food security," said Spronk.

Hurst has written articles on agricultural issues throughout his professional life, and they often reflect his conservative views. Omnivore's Delusion was actually written about a year ago. Hurst acknowledges the changing media landscape carried his article farther and faster than he expected.

"This one was a new phenomenon," he said. "The world has changed. When this article was put on the web and it was distributed, it made a huge difference."

As critics lined up to challenge Hurst's position on agri-intellectuals, a few invariably went to the Environmental Working Group's website to see how much he and family members have received in farm-program payments.

"Subsidies hurt us, hurt our arguments," he said.

Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com.

(ES/SK)

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