It is Agriculture Awareness Week on the Texas Tech campus. As a part of the festivities, Alex Avery, director of research and education at the Hudson Institute, gave a lecture Tuesday evening about organic foods and farming.
Avery says global population growth has increased the demand for resources worldwide. While many people are advocating organic foods and production methods, Avery says going strictly organic may not be the wisest choice.
"There are higher contamination rates of organic produce," Avery says.
He says genetic modifications to crops and organic raising methods do not make beef, pork or poultry healthier. He also says genetically modifying them can increase their risks of contamination.
"I am not anti-organic," he says. "I am just not a believer in the church of using only organic. I just think we should utilize the best methods from all the different systems."
Joseph Lippet, sophomore at Tech, says the lecture changed his mind about genetically modified crops.
Spencer Anderson, junior at Tech, says ignorance plays a role in the understanding of organic methods and products.
"It's important for people to do more research by themselves," he says.
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