Has ‘Organic’ Been Oversized?

[groovedaddy]

Michael J. Potter is one of the last little big men left in organic food.

More than 40 years ago, Mr. Potter bought into a hippie cafe and “whole earth” grocery here that has since morphed into a major organic foods producer and wholesaler, Eden Foods.

But one morning last May, he hopped on his motorcycle and took off across the Plains to challenge what organic food — or as he might have it, so-called organic food — has become since his tie-dye days in the Haight district of San Francisco.

The fact is, organic food has become a wildly lucrative business for Big Food and a premium-price-means-premium-profit section of the grocery store. The industry’s image — contented cows grazing on the green hills of family-owned farms — is mostly pure fantasy. Or rather, pure marketing. Big Food, it turns out, has spawned what might be called Big Organic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/organic-food-purists-worry-about-big-companies-influence.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120708

[PoliticAverse]

1. Just like everything is 'green' nowadays. n/t

[matt819]

2. Troubling article

Surprise, surprise. When it comes to organic, nothing is as it seems to be. So, it turns out there are only a few large, independent companies remaining that adhere to their founding principles. The rest? They fudge where they can, to the point that the only thing organic is the word on the label, certainly not the product inside.

Sure, there are arguments to the "buy local" mantra, but somehow I think the eggs I can buy from the farm down the road and the meat I can buy from the butcher who knows all of his suppliers and how they raise their meat are a far better option than adding to the coffers of Big Food.

[TheWraith]

3. They may be mass producing, but restrictions on the term "organic" are pretty severe.

There are a great many hoops to be jumped through before a product can be labeled organic.

[Tumbulu]

4. As a small organic farmer that has been certified since 1990

I can tell you that the standards for certification have only gotten more rigorous and the opportunities for fraud continue to become more limited.

I am no fan of huge mega industries, but because organic is becoming big, this does not mean that it is being diluted. On the contrary, it is getting so much harder to be certified. Every pound of product is accounted for now, it is much more serious than in the old days. And rightly so.

I feel proud that it has caught on and is now a bigger deal. It costs more to farm organically and the prices for the raw materials are understandably higher. Following all the standards and record keeping also costs more - let alone paying all these certifiers. Every organic product which might cost more, actually represents a smaller profit margin (in general) for everyone along the chain and this is usually because most everyone in the loop actually believes that organic production really is better for the earth.