Panic! The rise in Organic

I came across this article in Business Week Online - well worth a read and one that brings up a number of interesting issues.

It comes from a US perspective but nevertheless will apply to the UK eventually. Some of the key points it illustrates for me are:

1) The growth in demand for organic food is so high, there is simply not enough US based produce to meet it. As a result companies are having to source things like milk, youghurt, fruit, veg, meat, etc from abroad in countries like Brazil and China. If so, how on earth do we know they are sending us organic produce and on top of that the chances are we will be supporting poor wages, working conditions, etc and that is just the employees. I am pretty certain animal rights is not as high on the agenda as it is in the UK or US.

2) Due to the high demand big business is muscling in to take some of the action. Walmart and Kelloggs have now got on the organic bandwagon. Does this not destroy the whole idea of organic? i.e. cottage industries, small scale, dedicated family run business, ethical people, local produce, etc? The industry is being swallowed up by the multinationals and ripping the essence out of it. In the UK the same happened with Racheal's Diary organic milk. It was bought by Horizon Foods and then sold to Dean Foods a massive US conglomerate! Green & Black the chocolate people sold up to Cadburys.

3) The whole organic craze has led to the establishment of the organic big brother; in the US it is US Agriculture Dept and here the Soil Association. These "watchdogs" have bills and wages to pay. Their role becomes an overseer and one with very narrow guidelines, i.e. to ensure that the feed is organic and no chemicals and the like are used. However do they vouch for animal welfare? Do they vouch for origin of feeds? Do they guarantee that the company they gave their logo too is really sending their own lambs to the abbattoir or are they sneakily passing through cheaper stock?

To me it is a worrying trend. On the one hand yes, it's good more people are going organic but on the other is could be dangerous. I don't want to put money in the pockets of nameless investors. I want my money to go to people. I think it rams home something I am more and more in favour of - going local. This means people buy as much produce as they can from local people - their meat from farmers, their veg from allotments or again farmers, their eggs, cheeses, yoghurts, etc. This was you can actually see who is selling you the stuff, who is growing it. What kind of person are they? How are their animals treated? What fields do they live in, etc? On top of that you are reducing transport costs and doing something for the environment.

Obviously it is more difficult for people in the big cities to do this but it is not impossible. Forming some sort of network of like minded people you can assign people on a weekly basis to travel out and get everyone's goods. You should not really have to travel more than 2 hours to find producers in the UK.

Read the article anyway - it should make those of us who want more than a logo on our food stop and think where this may all be going.....