Podchef's Gastrocast Podcast

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The podcast about cooking, food, and the politics of what we eat.

Read before you buy, or the Rape of Organics

With only a 2% share of the $500 Billion food market, the 20% growth of the Organic Movement has caught the eyes of the big boys.
The New York Times reports this morning that Wal-Mart (there's a name I'd trust to serve wholesome, organic foods. . . .NOT!), McDonald's,  Kraft, General Mills, etc all want a piece of the Organic Label.

And it seems they may have a chance now that Congress has weakened what "Organic" means. I can't think of anything else to say, but ASSHOLES!

Now that the term "Organic" has been watered down the field is wide open for all the big players to cash in on the idea of purity and health, even if they have no intention of complying with the letter of the law.

Coming to Organic food near you: Synthetic cleaners, GM ingredients, Antibiotics, Growth Hormones, and "non-organic ingredients...substituted for organic ingredients without any notification of the public based on 'emergency decrees'".

Now more than ever, those of us who use Organic products should be looking at where they come from. I was horrified to find that a company I trusted as small, and organic--even local, because they have growers and distributors in our area--is actually owned and managed by General Mills. It is obvious that the Government has bowed to pressure from major Argribusiness and profit mongers and has thrown "truth in advertising" even further into the pit.

Where has trust gone? How can we manage our way through the morass of labeling and codes and mis-information? Sing it with me once again, BUY LOCAL when you can!
By supporting local, organic agriculture (whenever you can)--where you know the farmer and can check out their operation--you are in control of what you eat.
I am beginning to think that if I have a farmer's pledge that his products were grown without artificial means, in a sustainable way, with minimal interference from chemicals or processing then that is infinitely better than a "Certified Organic by the USDA" stamp even if said farmer can't call his products "organic."
Another source for information and goodness is your local Organic Co-Op. I was interested to find, this past week, that the one I shop at can't buy Farmed Fish by their own "charter" because of all the  troubles there are with aquaculture. . . .

 

by: ChefNeal at 11/01/05 15:14 | link | comments (4)|
usdassholes, organic, truth in advertising

Comments:

#1  01 November 2005 - 16:41

 

Amen to that. Stick it to the man wherever possible, at least with regard to food...
Still really enjoying your podcasts here in Oxford!

jimbo

#2  01 November 2005 - 21:38

 

Cheers Jimbo! I best recall a wintry trip I took to Oxford where damp and chilled we ducked into a little pub on the river for large brandies and wassail.

I think the Brits on the whole have the Organic movement well underhand. The Yanks, however. . .have everything backassward as usual. I was just flipping through an old UK issue of Country Living which someone sent my way. If you peer behind all the posh toss there is a backbone of organic producers and sustainable agriculture and environmentally sound land management which we would do well to copy over here.

ChefNeal

#3  02 November 2005 - 04:52

 

We see the same industrialization of organic agriculture here in Canada. In some case, you'll find a true organic production but on a gigantic scale (soy, wheat or corn for instance) but on other case the only thing the produce offer is a label from a bad certification agency.

Up to a certain point, I like the idea that the organic is going mainstream for obvious environmental reasons... but I think most of us can see how the label 'organic' is also being degraded through laxist laws and bad certification agencies.

It takes time and money for a producer to have his farm certified as 'organic' by a good agency and for that reason I'm all for a gouvernmental involvement in the certification process (in most countries, the government did pass some form of legislation to protect this label). The problem rise when it is not a legislation based on consummer's concerns but on the appetite for profit by a variety of actors.

Personnaly, I'm all for a variety of labels to coexists (e.g. green, organic, artesan made...). We as consummers often have very little information to make our choices and we need more.

As you can see from this very long comment... I really enjoy your site and podcasts ;-)

Anonymous

#4  02 November 2005 - 05:07

 

Thanks for the Northern Viewpoint.

I agree that for Organic to be more mainstream is very important, but it should be at the level of full disclosure and honesty. If we as consumers can make better choices and have more information, that is a start. But I also think we can and should vote with our wallets in the sense that if we buy locally in as much as possible we will block out some of the larger industrial concerns which cannot compete with the insularity.

For those things we cannot buy locally then we should rely on fair trade practices and clear sources of product untrammeled by the global, industrial machine. Sooner or later the empire will topple--whether consumers bring it about or it collapses from within.

ChefNeal

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