As the popularity of organic food has surged over the last few years so has the interest of big bisiness.? Corporate giants like Kraft and Walmart have entered the organic market and have helped sales reach upwards of 14 billion per year.? But is this a good thing??
These huge corporations have created a demand for an industry that simply does not have the ability to supply enough product.? There are just not enough organic farms.?
?Exhibit A: Gary Hirshberg’s quest for organic milk. Dairy producers estimate that demand for organic milk is at least twice the current available supply. To quench this thirst, the U.S. would have to more than double the number of organic cows — those that eat only organic food — to 280,000 over the next five years. That’s a challenge, since the number of dairy farms has shrunk to 60,000, from 334,000 in 1980, according to the National Milk Producers Federation. And almost half the milk produced in the U.S. comes from farms with more than 500 cows, something organic advocates rarely support.
Earlier this year, Earthbound Farm, a California producer of organic salads, fruit, and vegetables owned by Natural Selection Foods, cut off its sliced-apple product to Costco because supply dried up — even though Earthbound looked as far afield as New Zealand.
Faced with ever increasing demands corporations are taking advanage of lax labeling laws and are?now?buying product from places like; China, Brazil, Ecuador and Turkey.? Does anyone reading this think these countries have the same standards as the U.S., let alone being labeled organic??
The bottomline line, no pun intended, is we as consumers are being ripped off.? The organic label has become worthless.? Our only solution is to buy natural products from local farmers.? It is impossible for healthy,?natural foods to be produced on a?massive scale and shipped world wide for consumption.
For more information on obtaining natural foods and?restoring nutrient dense foods to the human diet, visit westonaprice.org?
