Organic and Big Business

http://lohas.datajoe.com/app/ecom/pub_article_details.php?id=83399 The Organic Myth -Pastoral Ideals Getting Trampled As Organic Food Goes Mass Market - or so the sub-heading reads for this article. Yes, the organic food market is growing, and feeling some growing pains. And as this article says:

"As food companies scramble to find enough organically grown ingredients, they are inevitably forsaking the pastoral ethos that has defined the organic lifestyle. For some companies, it means keeping thousands of organic cows on industrial-scale feedlots. For others, the scarcity of organic ingredients means looking as far afield as China, Sierra Leone, and Brazil -- places where standards may be hard to enforce, workers' wages and living conditions are a worry, and, say critics, increased farmland sometimes comes at a cost to the environment."

For a different perspective on this growth, I encourage you to read Organic, Inc.

Here's where I am landing on this organic movement - we aren't going to go back to subsistence farming. Big Business is here to stay, so let's ring in a new era of conscious capitalism that includes the Krafts, General Mills, and Wal-Marts of the world. Ain't it grand?!! There aren't enough organic farmers to fill demand for organic products! In a free market society, prices will go up, and more farmers will make the shift sooner, because they will actually be able to make a living again. And yes, big factory farms will find a way to eliminate pesticides, growth hormones, and other environmentally unsound practices so that they too can help meet this market demand. Yes to that! Fewer pesticides! More environmentally sound farming practices!

Folks - this is good news overall for the planet. And for our bodies. And for our grandchildren. Oh for the day when all farms of all shapes and sizes are 100% organic...