Monday, October 12, 2015

J.I. Rodale: A Paranoid Publisher Who Became the Godfather of Organics | The New Republic

From the SciBabe, "J.I. Rodale started the organic movement and founded Prevention magazine. He was also pretty much batshit insane, from his distrust of doctors to attempting to find a dietary cure for polio. And for all his dietary advice (and I'm sure he ate a healthy diet), it couldn't stop genetics from torching him with a heart attack at 72... right after he announced that he'd never felt better and he'd decided to live to be 100."


By the time of his death, J.I. Rodale had become the organics authority in America. His significance to today’s food revolution cannot be underestimated—and not simply because Rodale Inc. is still churning out the above titles, plus Men's Health, Runner's World, and others. He was at the forefront of a critique of industrial agriculture that contained a wariness (if not downright paranoia) about government, science, and business's role in food production. Had Rodale had his way, his alternative proposals would have earned him a place of influence and respect in mainstream American society. But since the USDA and others roundly rejected Rodale’s organic designs, he cast them and the modern foods system as villains in a Manichean morality play, with self-serving bureaucrats and businessmen plotting against earnest organic advocates. That narrative lives on today. When celebrities like Jenny McCarthy spread misinformation about the dangers of vaccines, or locavores like Michael Pollan preach relentlessly about the evils of large-scale food production, they're following in Rodale's reactionary footsteps.
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Rodale’s suspicion of doctors and drugs led him to embrace scientifically dubious alternatives, such as a dietary cure for polio. He claimed that the anti-polio course recommended in Dr. Benjamin Sandler’s pamphlet, “The Road to Polio Prevention”—featuring unprocessed vegetables and “protective foods like meat, fish, and poultry"—would halt polio because “really healthy children do not get polio.” After Dr. Sandler’s diet was broadcast in his local North Carolina newspapers, “polio cases dropped almost magically,” Rodale claimed.

Because the establishment wasn’t trustworthy, Rodale recommended an individualistic approach to health.“We must question every generally accepted health tenet or dogma," he believed. "You must observe the effects on your own bodily processes of your basic daily actions. Make your own interpretation.” To this end, he served readers a smorgasbord of dire warnings and dietary endorsements. In My Own Technique for Eating for Health (1969), Rodale enumerated foods and vitamins needed for optimum well-being. Sunflower seeds, he claimed, “contain a living element, a germ which represents life.” Wheat, salt, and milk, on the other hand, caused everything from the halitosis to hardened arteries. For evidence, Rodale cited his own experiences or he cherry-picked data from various sources (some legitimate scientific studies, some specious). Often, reader testimony sufficed.
 
J.I. Rodale: A Paranoid Publisher Who Became the Godfather of Organics | The New Republic

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