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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

Rob:
> All that said IMO when WalMart and Monsanto decide what can have the 
> "organic" label it won't be organic anymore.
> 

I can't help but think along these same lines.  Some time back on some list 
or the other, I commented on the likes of Melissa's Farms, which boasts 
30,000 
acres of organic produce, are only "organic" [wink, nod, nudge] by a very 
curious definition of the word.  I pointed out that in my very modest holding 
growing food for a family of six and a few neighbors now and again, I had 
mounds 
and heaps of compost piles, most of the them 'in situ' now of days with the 
result that as much as a quarter of the total garden space is "fallow" with 
3' 
high compost piles.  For a 30K acre farm, where's the compost piles?   
Someone 
had answered in the tone that suffers fools that such a large farm couldn't 
be 
bothered with trifles like compost piles, they sheet composted the fields 
direcly.

Do tell.  I most earnestly doubt it.  An inch of compost (the minimum) for 
30,000 acres would be like moving in another county's topsoil for that one 
farm 
between every crop.  Fact no dout is that by 'organic'  they mean they only 
use pruchased fertilizer from a specific list and use pesticides from a 
specific 
list.  What *used to* be meant by 'organic' was growing vegetables out of 
humus and decaying organic matter.  The idea of organic fertilizer used to 
directly feed plants was oxymoronic.

No doubt that with WalMart making some sort of stab at retailing organic 
produce some good will come of it:  perhaps less overall pesticide use, 
perhaps 
less chemicals in storing and processing.

But make no mistake, when Monsanto (and ilk) get into supplying "organic" 
[nudge, nod, wink] fertilizers and "organic" pesticides so that agribusiness 
can 
supply WalMart with "organic" food, the tail will vigorously wag the dog.  
Whatever Monsanto sells, whatever agribusiness produces, whatever WalMart 
sells, 
THAT will be the definition of organic.

Remember that the Israelites insisted on having a king in spite of Samuel 
warning them that they didn't really want one.  Like that the small barefoot 
hippie farms that pushed and scrambled for years for a national organic 
standard 
have their own King Saul now.  

Did you happen to see the excellent Pixar flick "The Incredibles"?  As the 
villian, Syndrome, muttered as he was about to mass market super powers, "Now 
everyone will be Super.  And when everyone is Super, no one will be!"

Soon all food will be organic.  Which is to say, no food will be organic.