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permaculture - "Organic" rip-off

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  • From: John Schinnerer <John-Schinnerer@data-dimensions.com>
  • To: 'permaculture' <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: "Organic" rip-off
  • Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 15:49:29 -0700


Aloha,

My hat is off to all those who worked to keep GMOs, irradiation, sludge and
so on out of the "organic" standards proposal. This is a good thing. An
irradiation plant is almost certain to be built on the Big Island, but even
if "organic" food goes in what comes out can't be labeled "organic."

And...

A pattern I see is that the USDA/agribusiness complex (the USDA is
systemically wedded to agribusiness, not small growers) is doing what it
does as a system to make sure that "organic" as a certification will profit
"organic" agribusiness (an oxymoron if ever I heard one). The big ones can
afford the overhead of paying multiple layers of fees and/or payoffs to
government certification agencies and/or agents. Small growers can't, and
will be squeezed out. This is the dominant business model in all other
arenas of commodity commerce, so if one wishes to play that game there are
plenty of examples of what course that game will take. The details of the
"organic standards" rules and regulations do not significantly affect the
nature of the larger game. MegaOrganics, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of
Monsanto) here we come... ;-)

Sal offers solutions in his comment about how the food speaks for itself -
*if*a grower steps out of the agribusiness food-as-commodity box and does a
CSA or local direct farmer's market or alternative currency or barter or
other clever schemes yet to be designed. The common pattern in such designs
is that there is a close relation between food-producer and client - they
know each other personally as human beings and that *is* the
"certification." Of course there can be betrayals of trust in these
relations, but at least each party is taking direct responsibility for these
relations rather than wanting to place that responsibility somewhere else.

One of the most basic pathologies here is the desire to "own" some
"standard" called "organic" and use it in place of actual human relatings
and personal responsibility for one's choices and actions.

John Schinnerer




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