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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Demand for Organic Food Outstrips Supply

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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@dotnet.com>
  • To: Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Demand for Organic Food Outstrips Supply
  • Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 12:04:21 -0500

Sure, I'll jump in.
Organic means food is grown without bug killer, fertilizer, hormones,
antibiotics or biotechnology.
Nuh-uh. It means without synthetics that aren't on the 'list'. There are plenty of bug killers, fertilizers, antibiotics, and biotechnology in organic production. They just have to be on the 'natural' list. Just because something is on the list doesn't mean it isn't going to harm someone in the right quantity or over time. Most of the things being used because they are 'natural' haven't been tested in the same manner as the synthetics are. They are just GRAS (generally regarded as safe). Like fluoride and chlorine.

Message: 7
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 08:57:52 -0600
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>

Any comments or criticisms on this? Before I jump in ...
-------------

The makers of the high-energy, eat-and-run Clif Bar needed 85,000 pounds of
almonds, and they had to be organic. But the nation's organic almond crop
was spoken for. Eventually, Clif Bar found the almonds -- in Spain. But
more shortages have popped up: apricots and blueberries, cashews and
hazelnuts, brown rice syrup and oats.

Even Stonyfield Farm, an organic pioneer in the United States, is pursuing
a foreign supplier; Stonyfield is working on a deal to import milk powder
from New Zealand.
WTF??? We have more milk than we need in this country, that's why we have price supports, isn't it?
Someone really has to work on separating the real farmers in this country from the government-sponsored cult called "Organics". (Yes, it's a cult. They wear the hemp uniforms, drink the soy KoolAid, and sing organic songs...it's a cult)
The cult is turning into a corporation, and the government is enabling it.
Soylent Green, anyone?
"If organic is something created in the image of sustainable agriculture,
we certainly haven't accomplished that yet," said Urvashi Rangan, a
scientist for Consumers Union. "What people do have to understand is if
that stuff comes in from overseas, and it's got an organic label on it, it
had to meet USDA standards in order to get here."
How, exactly, is importing foods with fossil fuel going to get us to sustainable? And what happens to the foreign cultures when we pull out after our farms are brought up to speed? Or is America just going to be the 'administrators' of a global cluster of Organicorp which shuffles our money out and their processed organic products in? Fine thinking if our economy holds up the way it is, but I'm sure the peak oil economics will have some influence on how that plays out. The Organic cult is a luxury which we can't afford. It only adds to the giant sucking sound of money that should be spent in local communities being spent overseas or being put in offshore bank accounts for ex-USDA civil servants.

Caren Wilcox, the group's executive director, described how an Illinois
farmer showed up in May at an industry show in Chicago.

"He said, `I want to get certified. Help me,'" Wilcox said. "It was a smart
thing to do, but the fact that he had to get into his car and go down to
McCormick Center says something about the availability of information."
This is a widespread problem with all farming conferences. They always seem to be at the most expensive hotels in cities. The 'discount' is never as much as I can get on a AAA card. What's up with that, anyway? Apparently, these conferences are designed for people who already suck money out of the government on a larger scale than the local community should be concerned with.
Anyone concerned with the sizes of these companies involved in certified organic promotion at all?
I guess I'm just an anachronism in thinking that things which involve crossing county lines usually involve using fuel to do something that a neighbor could be doing.
In the meantime, manufacturers like Clif Bar and Stonyfield still prefer to
buy organic ingredients, wherever they come from, instead of conventional
crops in the U.S.

"Anybody who's helping to take toxins out of the biosphere and use less
poisonous chemicals in agriculture is a hero of mine," Hirshberg said.
"There's enormous opportunity here for everybody to win, large and small."


As long as they are profit-motivated, maybe; and only as long as the disposable income of the suburbs holds out until the magic hydrogen cars save us.

Dan Conine
Belgium, WI




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