permaculture

["Lee Flier" <lflier@mindspring.com>]

Graham wrote:


>I noticed on the news a while back that Iceland stores are to 'rethink'
>their policy on stocking organic lines as sales have not been as high as
>hoped of late. Also, my local Co-op store told me yesterday they wouldn't
be
>stocking organic tea any longer (presumably because nobody except me buys
>it???)... Does this mean the 'organic craze' is over?

Maybe, but it probably means no one is willing to pay the prices the stores
charge for organic.  Some of them are ridiculous!  A few months ago I was in
my local Whole Foods chain and they were charging $3.99 US for a little
bitty bunch of organic broccoli!  I was shocked.  Interestingly, I went back
in there just a couple of weeks ago and it was only $1.49.

Grocery store shelf space is an extremely competitive arena and the stores
consider it a royal pain in the butt to stock most organic products.  Those
they do stock, they gouge you for, because the word on the street has been
for the last few years that yuppies will pay anything for organic.  Now
they're starting to discover that even yuppies will not, in fact, pay just
ANYthing.  So they're either lowering the prices or they quit carrying the
products.  Most of the big stores have cut deals with the equally big food
companies and would rather not bother carrying anything else unless they
have to.

>Doesn't it also point up the fact that (as if we didn't already know it),
>the big stores are motivated by a short termist profit ethic rather than a
>deep commitment to sustainability, and always will be?

Yes (as if we didn't already know it <G>).

>What's the bigger picture, and our next achievable step in keeping organic
>and sustainability on the public agenda??


I don't know, except to try and interest more people in growing their own
food and/or buying from local CSA's.  Even the word "organic" will probably
come to mean nothing as more and more large companies try to co-opt the
term.  The only way to undermine these monopolies is to actually KNOW your
food provider and be able to see with your own eyes where your food comes
from and how it is produced.

--Lee