Organic Farming

The New York Times has been running a series of in-depth stories on organic agiculture lately, and what they clearly see as big changes coming. One story focused on Wal-Mart's announcement that they will be carrying organic produce in all their stores, and setting an arbitary 10% price premium over coventional produce. Another focused on the market for natural and organic meat, and how its growth is going to affect smaller producers.

The fact that America's most influential newspaper is focusing so much attention on what is still the just 2% of our nation's food - although it is the fastest growing segment - is significant. They are merely responding to all the attention that Wall Street and U.S. corporations are giving organic. For several years now, the big food conglomerates and investment banks have been snapping up recognized organic brands and pouring money into them. Their efficiency experts and legal teams have been hunkering down to figure out how to "get the most mileage" out of the USDA organic standards without breaking any laws. So it is that "free range" chickens now enjoy the same confined facilities as their conventionally farmed cousins, but with a small door to the outside (that they hardly ever use).

When the efficiency experts decide that some part of the USDA Organic Standards just simply won't work - i.e., it will be too expensive - the legal team meetsd with the lobbying firm. Tehy come up with a few choice, seemingly innocuous phrases, and start working on the right politiicians to get them inserted into the rider on some appropriations bill or another.

Hmmmm - time to write your congressman and let him/her know how you feel about exactly what organic means. We have to educate ourselves about where our food comes from - making sure that it comes from a local organic farmer vs somewhere in Mexico, Peru, China, and other places with lower costs that the U.S. And we need to insure that what we actually purchase is truthly organic.