04-16-2007 Planning Commission Packet

Home Browse Search

� . was supposed to mimic the logic of natural a screened-in concrete"porch"—a view of them.Just this past yeaz the Organic Trade systems rather than that of the factory. the outdoors.Herein lies one of the deeper Association used lobbyists who do work for We have already seen what happens when paradoxes of practicing organic agriculture Kraft Foods to move a bill through Congress the logic of the factory is applied to organic on an industrial scale:big,single-species that will make it easier to include synthetic food production.The industrialization CAFO's are even more precarious than their ingredients in products labeled organic. of organic agriculture,which Wal-Mart's conventional cousins,since they can't use Organic is just a word,after all,and its involvement will onl dee en,has alread antibiotics to keep the thousands of animals definition now lies in the hands of the y p y living in close confinement indoors from given us"organic feedlots"—two words that becoming sick.So organic CAFO-hands(to federal government,which means it I never thought would find their way into call them farmhands seems overly generous) is subject to all the usual political and the same clause.To supply the escalating keep the free ranging to a minimum and economic forces at play in Washington. demand for cheap organic milk,agribusiness then keep their fingers crossed. Inevitably,the drive to produce organic companies are setting up 5,000-head dairies, food cheaply will bring pressure to further often in the desert.These milking cows never Wal-Mart will buy its organic food from weaken the regulations,and some of K touch a blade of grass,instead spending their whichever producers can produce it most Street's finest talent will soon be on the days standing azound a dry-lot"loafing area" cheaply,and these will not be the sort of case.A few years ago a chicken producer in munching organic grain—grain that takes farmers you picture when you hear the word Georgia named Fieldale Farms persuaded a toll on both the animals'health(these "organic:'Big supermazkets want to do its congressman to slip a helpful provision ruminants evolved to eat grass,after all)and business only with big farmers growing lots of into an appropriations bill that would allow the nutritional value of their milk.But this the same thing,not because big monoculture growers of organic chicken to substitute is the sort of milk(deficient in beta-carotene farms are any more efficient(they aren't) conventional chicken feed if the price of and the"good fats"—like omega 3's and but because it's easier to buy all your carrots organic feed exceeded a certain level.That C.L.A.—that come from grazing cows on from a single megafarm than to contract with certainly makes life easier for a chicken grass)we're going to see a lot more of in the hundreds of smaller growers.The"transaction producer when the price of organic corn supermarket as long as Wal-Mart determines costs"aze lower,even when the price and the is north of$5 a bushel,as it is today,and � to keep organic milk cheap. quality are the same.This is just one of the conventional corn south of$2.But in what We're also going to see more organic milk many ways in which the logic of industrial sense is a chicken fed on conventional feed —and organic foods of all kinds—coming capitalism and the logic of biology on a farm still organic?In no sense but the Orwellian from places like New Zealand.The come into conflict.At least in the short run, one:because the government says it is. globalization of organic food is already well the logic of capitalism usually�revails. �er an outcry from consumers and some under way:at Whole Foods you can buy Wal-Mart's push into the organic market wiser heads in the organic industry,this organic asparagus flown in from Argentina, won't do much for small organic farmers, new rule was repealed.The moral of the raspberries from Mexico,grass-fed meat that seems plain enough.But it may also Fieldale story is that unless consumers and from New Zealand.In an era of energy spell trouble for the big growers it will favor. well-meaning organic producers remain scarcity,the purchase of such products does Wal-Mazt has a reputation for driving down vigilant and steadfast,the drive to make little to advance the ideal of sustainability prices by squeezing its suppliers,especially the price of organic foods competitive with that once upon a time animated the organic after those suppliers have invested heavily that of conventional foods will hollow out movement.These foods may contain to boost production to feed the Wal-Mart the word and kill the organic goose,just no pesticides,but they are drenched in maw Having done that,the supplier will when her golden eggs are luring so many big petroleum even so. find itself at Wal-Mart's mercy when the players into the water.Let's hope Wal-Mart Whether produced domestically or not, company decides it no longer wants to pay recognizes that the extraordinazy marketing organic meat will increasingly come not a price that enables the farmer to make a magic of the word"organic"—a power that from mixed,polyculture farms growing a living.When that happens,the notion of flows directly from our dissatisFaction with variety of species(a practice that makes it responsibly priced food will be sacrificed to the very-cheap-food economy Wal-Mart possible to recycle nutrients between plants the imperatives oE survival,and the pressure has done so much to create—is a lot like . and animals)but from ever-bigger Confined to cut corners will become irresistible. the health of an organic chicken living in Animal Feeding Operations,or CAFO's, Up to now,the federal organic standards close confinement with thousands of other which,apart from using organic feed and have provided a bulwark against that chickens in an organic CAFO,munching abjuring antibiotics,are little different pressure.Yet with the industrialization of organic corn:fragile. from their conventional counterparts.Yes, organic,these rules are themselves coming Michael Poilan is the nuthor,most recently, the federal organic rules say the animals under mounting pressure,and forgive my of The Omnivore's Dilemma:A Natural should have"access to the outdoors,"but in skepticism,but it's hard to believe that History of Four Meals.He also teaches practice this often means providing them the lobbyists kom Wal-Mart are going journaiism at the University of California at with a tiny exercise yard or,in the case of to play a constructive role in defending Berheley. one organic egg producer in New England, those standards kom efforts to weaken LAKEWINDS NATURAL FOODS•APRIL/Iv1AY 2007•3