August 21, 2006

Mass Produced Organic Food - Is it Better?

634Px-Organic Apple

Now that organic food is growing in popularity, agri-business is getting on board and mass producing organic food instead of it being grown on smaller farms. Is there a difference?

"Industrial organics." The mere mention of the recently coined, aptly turned phrase describing mass-produced organic foods grown on giant industrial farms and sold in superstores such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Safeway, can cause our palms to sweat.

As you can see it can turn some people to panic, but isn't the use of less pesticides, less fertilizer and less of all those evil chemicals a good thing?

As food systems consultants and school food reform advocates, we regularly take a firm stand on a wide range of controversial food issues. So what is it about industrial organics that kicks our nervous systems into high gear? Is it that we so strongly believe that industrial organics constitute an incongruity so dangerous as to destroy any remaining prospect of developing a truly sustainable agriculture system? Or, is it because we fervently believe industrial organics are the long-awaited savior -- almighty capitalism's answer to eradicating pesticides, hormones and antibiotics from our food supply?