Socially and Ecologically Responsible Agriculture Network

[Robert McGuinn <rpm AT alumni.duke.edu>]

SERANET and SANET, 

I am seeking perspectives on the accusations of many that organic food
has become elitist food.  I can see the perspective in action when I go
to one of the many large, well-positioned, urban markets such as Whole
Foods.  The same is true when I think of Chez Panisse and kind. These
consumer outlets attract a disproportionate share of the well-to-do and
intellectual elite in the United States.  

I can see how local agricultural-based bartering economies can be much
healthier from both a social and ecological perspective, especially in a
international context. When you try to carry these same ideals into a
modern anonymous consumer context, it fails. You end up with an
epicurean, idealist, lefty-intellectual, elitist, cultural and economic
manifestation that does little to forward the real aims of a sustainable
food system.   

Confusion and bewilderment is my main feeling with regards to this
issue.  Realizing on the one hand that real organic farmers, really
great communities, and healthy landscapes are being supported and
promoted by the likes of Whole Foods, yet when I go into these markets,
I notice a conspicuous lack of the working class and any real
diversity.  I mean, what is the real difference between the white girl
with dreadlocks who arrived in a VW bus to pick up her lunch (most
likely from the local university), and the white girl with a business
suit and pumps arriving in her new Volvo.  Fashion is fashion.  From an
energetic standpoint (in the sense of Howard Odum), they are only
slightly different actors.  

Please someone inform me how this will play out in the long run.  My gut
feeling is that we are still doing nothing to remedy the same old
divisive tendencies of society. Those who eat well and those who don't,
those who have clean water and air, and those who don't, etc., etc..
What about those who are too poor to even know that organic and
sustainability issues are even a problem, and those who, like myself,
carry on at length on the subject, all the while sipping my organic soy
latte in an upscale urban oasis.     

So as not to be taken in the wrong spirit, I should also state that I
recognize that the alternative is ecological and social death at the
hands of the military/industrial/agrichemical machine.  The spirit of my
post is one of inquiry rather than a statement of knowledge or insight. 
I am a committed consumer of local and organic products because I just
feel it is right, although something worries me about the direction it
is taking in the marketplace. 

Robert McGuinn

P.S.  Rereading my post I realize that I fail to mention that I see the
same divisions, although more subtle, in small food coops and even
CSA's.  I did not want to indict Whole Foods as the cause of this. 
These outlets are just too expensive or to meet the daily food needs of
most people.  Please enlighten me!