In article , newsgroup wrote:

On 10 Sep 2003 12:04:40 -0700, (Fleemo) wrote:

I just want to know if I'm wasting my time in
preparing a batch of the brown liquid if my primary goal is to feed my
plants.

A letter posted today on yahoo groups compost-tea:

[fabulously loony vendor gibbering deleted -- follow thread back if you
missed that amazingly exhibition of "why science isn't real"!]

Yowza Tom!, I sure hope you reposted that as a hilarious example of the
muddy supernatural thinking of VENDORS trying to hornswoggle you into
believing complete & utter nonsense, leaving out even moderate scientific
content while insisting the scientists are universally wrong &
real-soon-now the vendor organizations will be publishing the truth!

It's too damned bad that so many people promoting organic gardening do so
with a line of products which defines what is "good." It's downright weird
that someone with Ingraham's educational background keeps telling people
not to believe the science, to believe the vendor editorials instead.

As Dr Ingaham is one of the big-cheese VENDORS selling all manner of
books, CDs, audio tapes, manuals, services, & workshops, she may be
assumed to perfectly represent the VENDOR perspective on why you should
spend money on services & junk such as her company sells. Funny she has
been peddling this stuff a long time now, & has all the minor university
affiliations one would require to be taken seriously, and STILL pretending
"real soon now" her own COMPANY research on aerobic teas will be
appearing in yet-to-be-named scientific journals, but in the meantime you
can buy the reports in her self-published booklets & tapes. She has
published a great deal on this topic, none of it peer-reviewed, all of it
is promotional, none of it scientific, most of it is self-published. But
not until you reposted her "letter" did I realize she was actually crazy
-- I thought she was just a hack trying to make a buck on the side, not
that she actually needs to commit herself to an asylum.

I found a dozen outright fabrications & deceptions in her screed before I
stopped counting, but when it REALLY gets loony is when invents that
idiotic story about the REASON that field tests show aerated teas have no
effect on pathogens is because the researchers sneak into the fields when
no one can see them and POISON THEIR PLANTS ON PURPOSE so that the
scientific evidence will be negative & against compost tea effectiveness.
Zowwy! That one reminded me of a schizophrenic who told me her doctor
could see her through the walls of her apartment & snuck into her room at
night stealing her thoughts. This is one of the big "leaders" in the
commercialization of compost teas & associated services for extravagant
fees -- & she turns out to be certifiably nuts! 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. But what is certain, you can't trust the scientists -- you can
trust only the vendors & herself for the truth.

Some of the merely deceptive & lying stuff in her Letter, as opposted to
the paranoid bits against scientists, include:

1) She repeats the old lie about compost teas being a great source of
nematodes. A small lie as her lies go, but it's interesting that about
three-fourths of the vendors have stopped telling that one since too many
people found out it isn't so.
2) She notes that science is your enemy in these matters "because the
weight of tradition" counts for more than emperical evidence or controled
studies.
3) She repeats the common vendor explanation for why all the field studies
show aerated compost tea has no effect above that of plain water in
controlling pathogens: It wasn't "real" compost tea! (Which apparently is
so magical only mystic covens of brewers know how the "real" teas are
made, horticultural station researchers sure can't figure it out.)
4) Riddles her screed with sound-bite ideas that are completely
nonsensical, like "compost tea works just like asprin" -- avoiding the
simplest logic.
5) Lyingly rephrases the extant science to make it sound as crazy as she is.
6) Lies outright that she can teach methods of absolute consistency for
consecutive batches of teas then says it doesn't even need to be tested to
see if it is as consistent as she claims, if you used the right commercial
equipment.
7) Claims that compost teas are actually DANGEROUS if you don't learn the
methods she promotes & buy the right equipment she has tested (that's a
new one! Most vendors don't want to link compost tea to the idea of
dangerousness -- since by & large it isn't dangerous at all, other than
contributing to wetlands problems -- but I can see that someone who
charges up the wazoo for compost tea workshops called "seminars" would
want to create another level of tea mythology, that without her personal
input you'll kill your plants).
8) Contradicts six peer-reviewed published studies that show compost teas
quickly wash out of soils before plants are benefited, so can contributte
to groundwater pollution, & replaces that reality with a slight-of-hand
version about compost pile leachates.
9) Claims that "real" compost teas can only be made with expensive (but in
fact cheaply manufactured) commercial devices invented in the last five
years -- that's a new one too, as most other vendors claim only that their
products make it easier (which they don't) rather than it can't even be
done without their expensive b-s plastic tubs & absurdly overpriced
bubblers.
10) Uses the "baby with the bathwater" argument as back-up in case the
lies don't work -- cuz even if everything the peer-reviewed science has
shown to be factual really is factual, you should still use the teas for
purposes it is no good for because otherwise you're throwing the baby out
with the bathwater.
11) Is still after all this time making excuses for herself when she got
caught in the past lying about having worked with Dr. James Moore on a
major research project -- got in trouble for trumping up credits for
herself & later changed it to having worked with a golf course
groundskeeper named Jimmy Moore -- because "I didn't lie! There's more
than one Jim Moore in this world!" -- as if working with a golf course guy
would've been worth boasting about in her sales pitches. I wonder how
much of the rest of her curriculum vitae was equally cooked up & if push
comes to shove would turn out to have something to do with some unspecific
guy named Jimmy at a golf course instead of at the half-dozen universities
she purports. (Of course, the reason someone bounces around from one
hinterland university to another in rapid succession is because of a
failure to do anything sufficient credible to gain tenure -- "research"
issued through vanity presses doesn't even get your contract renewed.)

Well, I'm glad at least that the advocates of this stuff are so obviousy
shy a few bricks that anyone of merely average intelligence will raise a
brow.

Just please tell me you DID laugh your ass off reading at least the
they're-out-to-getme, scientists are evil revelations, & reposted it for
laugh value & not because you personally fell into the rhythm of it &
started to think there really is a world-wide cabal of evil scientists out
to destroy her & the whole "tradition needs no science" compost tea
industry.

-paghat

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/