I know it’s impolite, but I am feeling just a little smug. Back in 1999 I wrote something in this newsletter entitled “Organic prices are a Catch 22”. In that article I pointed out that organic growers better keep quiet about their profits lest their neighbors see them making money and jump on the gravy train. Also, at that time the organic industry was pressing to finally move their nationwide standards off the drawing board. I warned them about this too. No one, absolutely no one, with an ounce of sense would invited the feds into their busi-ness. Obviously they didn’t listen to me!
An article in the LA Times a week or so ago la-mented the problems small organic growers are having with the paperwork and fees required to become ‘certi-fied’ under the new USDA organic rules. In fact, most of the smaller ones will not bother. They lack the man-power or capital to document their practices and pay required assessments. According to the article, “It (or-ganic) has become a big farmer’s game. The top 2 per-cent of all California organic growers account for half the industry’s revenue and dominate sales to supermar-kets and natural food stores”.
And, about 18 months ago Michael Pollan wrote an extensive report for the New York Times entitled “Be-hind the Organic-Industrial Complex” wherein he la-mented the dashing of his outdated pastoral view of organic. Turns out that General Mills, the third largest food conglomerate in North America, owns Cascadian Farm, the corporation that makes Small Planet Foods. And, Cascadian Farm the corporation can’t even afford to use produce from Cascadian Farm the farm: it’s too small. The berries grown at the farm are marketed at a roadside stand while the company buys berries for freezing from as far away as Chile.
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