Former Subject: [Fertilizer for slow growing plants], posted on July 12th, 2005.
The following exchange from "paghat" came to my attention.
Normally, I do not post to usenet groups. But the comments from paghat are full of outright falsehoods and misinformation.
In the first place, Tom J. re-posted a whole series of "peer-reviewed" literature citations to rec.gardens. These citations were copied from a list of science papers and research reports that I sent to the Compost_Tea group on Yahoo.
There are plenty of papers published in scientific journals, on-farm research reports, and other data in that collection.
Neither paghat or Travis bothered to survey those reports or grasp this fact.
Paghat refers to a post I made to the Permaculture listserv in Jan. 2003, but mistakenly thinks it is linked to Elaine Ingham's business. The business listed, Harmony Central, had acquired a set of these CD's and was making them available.
Since I am in involved in technology transfer in support of sustainable agriculture, I post many resources to email lists so people can be aware of valueable and hard-to-find items on appropriate technology, sustainable agricultue, organic farming, permaculture, and soil biology, among other topics.
Paghat states that I am a friend and business associate of Elaine Ingham.
A falsehood, I have never been a business associate of Ingham. In fact, to this day, I have no business associations with any vendors, labs, or companies... anywhere.
Paghat states the ATTRA publication is promo literature.
Another falsehood. I commonly provide summaries of concepts, practices, scientific research, practitioner experience, suppliers and company products, and related resources in all of my ATTRA publications. It is called technology transfer.
Keep in mind, as well, that "Notes on Compost Teas" was published in February 2002. Since then, I have published other papers and resource lists on compost teas, and delivered workshops around the country.
People in sustainable agriculture know how to get ahold of me and access these updated materials.
People are welcome to call me at work and speak to me through two-way communication. Pick up the phone.
Paghat states "One has to give Diver credit for not promoting his own tapes at the same time; he does sell them."
Another falsehood, I don't have tapes of my own work, much less sell them.
Paghat states that I work in her company name, Soil Foodweb.
Another faleshood. I have never worked for SFI.
Paghat states, "Nowhere does Diver ever cite the peer-reviewed evidence, for the same reason Ingham dares not do so."
Another falsehood. They are clearly listed in the 2002 publication, and in the aforementioned items posted on the web.
Paghat states, "Diver's other major "authority" is BBC Laboratories which is a sciency sounding name for yet another vendor of compost teas. All the information ATTRA fobs off on the public is vendor-provided."
Another falsehood. BBC Labs does not sell compost tea, nor supplies. They are a testing lab.
Likewise, there is plenty of documentation among my publications and resource listings containing numerous scientific and practitioner literature.
Paghat states, "By law ATTRA is not permitted to advertise or endorse specific products, companies, or individuals. In promoting Ingham, her business, & even including photographs of the recommended products, the ATTRA articles on compost tea are actually illegal."
Another falsehood. ATTRA is a program of a non-profit organization and we are practical-minded in our educational delivery. We list suppliers so farmers know "where" they can get connected to agricultural equipment and products. We do this with common sense and balance, and we avoid endorsements, per se.
Farmers love the ATTRA materials, because we cut through the chaff and tell it like it is.
Hundreds of farmers have attended my workshops and the feedback is universally appreciative for making complex and in-depth topics practical and understandable, with scientific underpinning.
Compost teas and related on-farm microbial systems that promote beneficial biology in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere have become valueable tools in sustainable agriculture.
For what it's worth, I am sending this clarification for the rec.garden archives.
Steve Diver Fayeteville, Arkansas
paghat wrote:
Unfortunately the main "authority" used by the politically duped folks at
> ATTRA is Elaine R. Ingham, the crackpot who was bounced around from
> college to college unable to win tenure until she was asked to resign from
> her final position for using University of Oregon fascilities to promote
> her private business of selling compost tea. Her misrepresentations are
> numerous & ATTRA has leapt in as pre-believers who didn't compare Ingham's
> faked data with actual field studies. Although to be fair, ATTRA has not
> collectively produced this literature, it is strictly promo literature by
> one man, Steve Diver, who seems to have bamboozled the naifs at ATTRA into
> actually breaking the law & putting their funding at risk. Diver is a
> friend & business associate of Ingham. He's obviously approached compost
> tea as a religion, & taken Ingham as his priestess -- because it is hard
> work to avoid the actual data as he has done.
>
> Diver says of Ingham's self-published promotional booklet on which he
> bases his information, "I highly recommend this mannual," & throughout the
> text cites & paraphrases Ingham as the primary authority -- not for
> scientific data (for which there is none to support her claims) but Diver
> just writes promotionally, as in this choice turn of phrase: "Dr. Elaine
> Ingham, a microbial ecologist, has elevated our collective knowledge of
> the soil foodweb," even incorporating Ingham's personal, invented titles
> (a doctor of microbial ecology, gimme a break), which is entirely
> promo-jargon. He even works in her company name, Soil Foodweb in a most
> novel context. One has to give Diver credit for not promoting his own
> tapes at the same time; he does sell them.
>
> Diver might be a reliable source of OTHER agricultural information, but
> for compost tea is merely a vendor promotor. He has elsewhere posted
> advertisements on the web & in newsgroups for such things as Ingham's $50
> slide & video set for others who want (like himself) to give presentations
> & sell compost tea products. A typical example of his Ingham promotion > appears here:
>
> Nowhere does Diver ever cite the peer-reviewed evidence, for the same
> reason Ingham dares not do so.
>
> Bare in mind that the best scientific data available on the very slight
> but actual values of compost teas do not find that aerated teas are in any
> way superior, & in some ways inferior -- these promotions are for aerated
> teas because they require expensive equipment & it's a profitable scam. A
> true believer in compost teas, rather than a scoundrel out for a buck,
> would be showing how the pricy equipment is a complete waste of money. So
> even as believers go, Diver was ENTIRELY the wrong gent to be providing
> information for ATTRA to deposit on line exclusively & illegally to
> promote specific vendors of worthless products, rather than show fellow
> believers how to do it better for free.
>
> Diver's other major "authority" is BBC Laboratories which is a sciency
> sounding name for yet another vendor of compost teas. All the information
> ATTRA fobs off on the public is vendor-provided.
>
> By law ATTRA is not permitted to advertise or endorse specific products,
> companies, or individuals. In promoting Ingham, her business, & even
> including photographs of the recommended products, the ATTRA articles on
> compost tea are actually illegal. I will forward this post to ATTRA & to
> relevant congressmen, as they've definitely stepped over the line
> repeatedly promoting Ingham's business & products, which they wouldn't've
> been permitted to do even if she weren't a known crackpot & falsifier of > data. >
> But it's lucky for you you found Ingham paraphrased as it would seem
> you've finally joined the ranks of the many vendors rightly embarrassed by
> their former Vendor Goddess & no longer willing to cite her directly, but
> only through her main remaining advocate. I'm sure it still stings that
> you mistakenly posted in this ng, in failed support of Ingham & compost
> teas, her paranoid replies to why actual field research keeps failing to
> support her claims.
>
> She went totally loony inventing that idiotic story about the REASON field
> tests show aerated teas have no effect on pathogens is because the
> researchers sneak into the fields at night and POISON THEIR PLANTS ON
> PURPOSE so that the scientific evidence will be negative & against compost
> tea effectiveness. I also liked her stuff about scientists having a a
> secret "HIDDEN AGENDA" so nefarious & sinister she cannot make sense of
> it even to herself let alone to her letter's readers. This really is like
> a schizophrenic pretty convinced of things no matter how great the
> disconnect from reality. But what is certain, in Ingham's world, you
> can't trust the scientists -- you can trust only herself & other vendors
> for the truth.
>
> She further claimed in that posted letter that her research WOULD be
> forthcoming in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. She lied. It remains
> exclusively self-published promotional literature.
>
> She not only fabricates data, she fabricates her own educational
> background, taken to task by Dr. James Moore when she claimed to have done
> some of her research at his side. She later said it was a completely
> different James Moore, some chap who mows golf courses, but that seems to
> have been another of her Invisible Playmates since no lawn-mowing "Dr."
> Moore has ever come forward to substantiate her diluted claim.
>
> It's unfortunate that greenies at ATTRA, who should know better, have
> embraced Ingham's laughable & entirely vendor-oriented pretend-research
> which has been rejected from every peer-reviewed agricultural journal so
> that she has to publish leaving out testable data.
>
> It's tragic that ATTRA would lend its organization name to Steve Divers
> merelyh to put the stamp of approval on a crazy woman like Ingham & ignore
> all actual research. And I use the word "crazy" advisedly since Ingham has
> shown a tendency toward paranoid delusions & conspiracy theories when
> confronted by actual research data.
>
> Anyone who wants to believe the myths will naturally be drawn AWAY from
> the peer reviewed science & to this crackpot's notorious promotional
> literature. I will separately repost a bit of our old discussion of Ingham
> form the last time you talked yourself into a painted corner searching
> your heart out for any real science & lighting exclusively on Crazy
> Ingham. Anyone who just wants to sell the products, like Divers & I would
> guess yourself, will also not care that Ingham fabricates data, fabricates
> her expertise, & self-publishes her non-science after failing to convince
> any peer-reviewed agricultural journal to take her seriously.
>
> -paggers
> --
> Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt here:
>
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