On the heels of my own missive about the dilution of organic, SFGate.com carried a piece by Mark Morford, The Sad Death Of 'Organic' How weird and depressing is it now that Kellogg's and Wal-Mart are hawking 'natural' foods? yesterday.
I was a little unprepared. The commercial came on and I heard the familiar ukulele strums of the late Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's famous and famously beautiful version of "Over the Rainbow" (I know, but it really is quite lovely) and my first reaction was merely to cringe and wince as yet another exquisite and plaintive song was whored out to the advertising demons, just one of thousands.
But then came the barrage of images: the requisite shot of the Perfect Mom feeding her Perfect Child some sort of Perfect Food, all bathed in soft morning breakfasty light with happy trees peeking through the windows of the Perfect Kitchen in some utopian hunk of Perfect America, a bizarre scene that of course does not exist anywhere on this planet given how there weren't three empty wine bottles and some used underwear and a stack of dirty dishes and a fresh bottle of Xanax and an open newspaper offering up giant headlines about murders and nuclear warheads and Korean sex slaves anywhere in sight.
And then it happened. The logo. The product shot. The soothing voice-over. It was a commercial for a brand-new product: Kellogg's Organic Rice Krispies. And your heart goes, Ugh.
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The Business Week article referred to is getting a lot of play, but it doesn't say anything that those of us whole follow the industry don't already know. It's not that the big organic farms aren't organic. If your primary concern is avoiding pesticides in your body, they're still a perfectly valid choice. They just aren't the lifestyle choice that the farmer's market is. That doesn't make them bad; it just means that there are multiple factors to weigh in your choice of what to buy.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as the big companies realized that people were willing to pay a premium for organic, the movement was over. In a free market system there is no way of stopping this from happening, unfortunately. Buying local, and supporting CSAs is still the way to go, even if it doesn't carry the organic label.
ReplyDeleteTiffany -
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad you're finding the dietary modifications helpful and want to congratulate you on the seven pounds lost already!
Regina
Buying local, and supporting CSAs is still the way to go, even if it doesn't carry the organic label.
ReplyDeleteExactly!
I love getting my "mystery box" each week from the CSA is joined this year....the farm is organic, but not "certified organic" which is fine by me! I know my farmer, and not only get to talk to him each week about how things are going on the farm, but also get lots of information about each item in my box, how to cook it and what's coming the following week!
The farms I get meat, chickens, eggs and such from also are organic and those managing them are accessible and enjoy sharing information about what they're doing and how things are going. Something you'll not experience if you're just buying "off the shelf" in a supermarket, organic or not!