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Dennis T. Avery (born October 24, 1936) is the director of the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, where he edits Global Food Quarterly.

A food policy analyst for the past 30 years, Dennis Avery began his career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, served on the staff of President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission of Food and Fiber, and, prior to joining Hudson, was the senior agricultural analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He was the author of several books, including the New York Times Bestseller Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years which he co-authored with Dr. S. Fred Singer of George Mason University in Virginia.

Avery was an outspoken supporter of biotechnology, pesticides, irradiation, industrial farming, and free trade, as well as a long-time critic of organic farming and farm subsidies. He did not believe that DDT causes egg shell thinning in eagles. Hudson Institute's financial backers include major agricultural companies (e.g. ConAgra, Cargill) and pesticide manufacturers (e.g. Monsanto Company, DuPont, Dow-Elanco, Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy.

Dennis Avery is the father of Alex Avery, who also works for the Hudson Institute.

Organic food and E. coli

According to critics he was the source of a claim that organic food is more dangerous to eat than food produced using chemical pesticides because of usage of animal manure in organic farming. Specifically, in a 1998 article for the Wall Street Journal, he claimed the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had conducted studies showing that eating an organic diet carried an 8-times the risk of E. coli infection than eating a conventional diet. Despite the fact that the CDC had never conducted any such testing, the Avery article was widely quoted. The New York Times wrote about him: "Dennis T. Avery wants organic food to go away. And he doesn't care what it takes."

Climate change

Avery believed that the global warming is part of a natural cycle and therefore unstoppable. Avery had also predicted that the next 20 to 30 years will bring cooling temperatures.

Bibliography

• Global Food Progress 1991 (1991)
• Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming (August 2000)
• Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years (February 2007)

References

1. "Dennis T. Avery". Hudson Institute. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
2. Researchers Closer to Solving Disappearing Bee Mystery, Heartland Institute, March 1, 2008.
3. Greenpeace: A Long History of Poor Judgment, Dennis Avery, Heartland Institute, March 1, 2008
4. John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Trust Us, We’re Experts - How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future (New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001). ISBN 1-58542-139-1.
5. "Food wars". The Nation. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
6. "Saving the Planet With Pestilent Statistics". PR watch. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
7. Suslow,, Trevor (May 1999). "Organic Produce Production and Food Safety" (PDF). Perishables Handling Quarterly (98). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
8. Marian Burros (February 17, 1999). "EATING WELL; Anti-Organic, And Flawed". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
9. Dennis Avery & Fred Singer. "The Physical Evidence of Earth's Unstoppable 1,500-Year Climate Cycle". Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
10. CNN. "CNN;LOU DOBBS TONIGHT;aired Jan 13 2009". Retrieved 2009-01-16. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)

External links

• Hudson Institute

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• Living people
• 1936 births
• Food writers