Can Big Business do Organic?
Organic food… When Organically grown produce or food comes to mind visions of health nuts in sandals buying products from food Co-Ops, small markets and or farms is the common thought.
This picture however, is about to shattered into a million pieces as the machine known as big business invades the organic world.
While many of us see organic food as a passing trend or the latest health craze. Big Business sees an industry up by more than 20%in the past few years or a $14 billion industry ripe for takeover.
So small family farms are being bought out by larger companies as Kraft, Monsanto and even Wal-Mart are entering the organic world.
Consumers of organic products are happy that the world has heard their plea to buy organic big business and its dirty way (corporate) of doing business have begun to rear its ugly head.
Stonyfield Farm yogurt once a locally produced pesticide free ingredients grown on a family farm is now a state of the art industrial plant that handles milk from other farms and soon it may use milk from chemical free cows in New Zealand.
The Organic demand is out pacing its supply as they is not enough organic cows never mind organic grain to feed them nor is it enough organic strawberries, sugar or apple pulp to make organic yogurt.
The push for profits by big business is nipping away at the ethos of organically grown foods as cows are now being kept on industrial scale feedlots (factory farming) products that were once brought in from local farm are now coming from Brazil, China and Sierra Leone places where standard are hard to enforce, workers wages and living condition are a concern as well.
So can big business and Organic products coexist? That remains to be seen, but how can Monsanto a company constantly being condemned by the OCA Organically Consumers Association because of Monsanto’s campaign (war) against small family farmers produce Organic products? Monsanto’s entry into the Organic world becomes even more mystifying considering that Monsanto produces the most commonly used pesticides in the world.
Let’s not forget Wal-Mart and its toxic ways of doing business. Is it even possible that Wal-Mart produce anything that is chemical free?
This picture however, is about to shattered into a million pieces as the machine known as big business invades the organic world.
While many of us see organic food as a passing trend or the latest health craze. Big Business sees an industry up by more than 20%in the past few years or a $14 billion industry ripe for takeover.
So small family farms are being bought out by larger companies as Kraft, Monsanto and even Wal-Mart are entering the organic world.
Consumers of organic products are happy that the world has heard their plea to buy organic big business and its dirty way (corporate) of doing business have begun to rear its ugly head.
Stonyfield Farm yogurt once a locally produced pesticide free ingredients grown on a family farm is now a state of the art industrial plant that handles milk from other farms and soon it may use milk from chemical free cows in New Zealand.
The Organic demand is out pacing its supply as they is not enough organic cows never mind organic grain to feed them nor is it enough organic strawberries, sugar or apple pulp to make organic yogurt.
The push for profits by big business is nipping away at the ethos of organically grown foods as cows are now being kept on industrial scale feedlots (factory farming) products that were once brought in from local farm are now coming from Brazil, China and Sierra Leone places where standard are hard to enforce, workers wages and living condition are a concern as well.
So can big business and Organic products coexist? That remains to be seen, but how can Monsanto a company constantly being condemned by the OCA Organically Consumers Association because of Monsanto’s campaign (war) against small family farmers produce Organic products? Monsanto’s entry into the Organic world becomes even more mystifying considering that Monsanto produces the most commonly used pesticides in the world.
Let’s not forget Wal-Mart and its toxic ways of doing business. Is it even possible that Wal-Mart produce anything that is chemical free?
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