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Organics are in the news. Over the weekend, consumers were paying attention to whether major organic milk producers are really honoring the spirit of organic foods, and last week, media outlets were buzzing about how just about every mainstream grocery store is launching its own organic foods line, from Safeway to SuperValu. Organics are getting cheaper, and the move by huge retailers to expand organic offerings may mean that the demand for pesticide-free goods will change the way farmers in the U.S., and elsewhere, operate.Nowhere is the presence of organic products more incongruous than on Wal-Mart shelves. Wal-Mart is doubling the amount of organic produce in its grocery shelves for its shoppers "convenience" (and, one would imagine, to allow the retailer the ability to charge more -- and pocket higher margins as a result). The chain is also offering organic cotton clothing and organic baby formula. And while a few customers are surely happy, it seems, the larger response is... oh, no.
I feel your pain, oh ye people who are committed to organics. And I have to ask: is Wal-Mart, by trying to do good, actually doing bad?
I must disclaim. I want everyone to be able to eat organic produce and clothe their babies in unbleached organic onesies. I wish that organic farming, instead of suffering along at a measly 2% of all U.S. agriculture, was more like 98 or 99 or 110%. I want the groundwater to be clean of chemicals and my children to never know a carcinogen.
But part of the spirit of organics (it seems) is the romance of it all. And by romance, I also mean sustainability. Fair trade. Gentle on the earth. And all that. When I think organics, I think of my local farmer's market, where I buy heirloom garlic from hayseeds in suspenders and plaid shirts, and have to prevent my fingers from poking into the wrinkles of my favorite mushroom grower. It's the idea of buying from a farmer who earns a living wage selling directly to the end user, or at the very least, the nearest grocery store.
I certainly don't imagine a Wal-Mart process, with efficient distribution and RFID-tagged pallets and optimized prices. How can there be just-in-time wild mushrooms? It's wrong... right?
Does adding Wal-Mart into the equation, with its continuous drive to get prices low (for its customers and its suppliers), destroy the market for my delightful garlic farmers? Does it go against the very soul of organics?
If Wal-Mart does organics, will organics ever be the same?
[All photos Sarah Gilbert]
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
7-05-2007 @ 9:46PM
Kimberly said...
The government needs to make it a law to inform every consumer what the standards are for organic and non-organic and all food should be labeled if it is GMO and inform the consumer on what GMO's are as well.
It is nothing less then criminal not to make this common knowledge for everyone. This website is helpful www.HealthFreedomUSA.org. Oh and Rick it is not an accident that organic's is in high demand. I belong to a local Co-op and every member has a child or their self that has medical issues and their family practice advised them to eat as wholesome as possible. And if Wal-Mart can make that more accessible for everyone without lowering the standards of organic then more power to them. The problem is that it's truely not their goal to go green. It is all about the dollar. What people worry about with companies like Wal-Mart going organic is that organic standards will become so diluted and it will become no better than conventional and then we have lost. another good site is the www.thefutureoffood.com