On a lighter note
Posted by lawgeek on 30 May 2007 at 03:08 pm | Tagged as: Current Events, Food and Wine
Something tells me the writer of this headline has recently acquired a dog.
I’m not sure what to make of the main article. Part of me wants to say something along the lines of: Of course the whole organic thing has gone corporate, what did you expect?
Exactly.
Local is more important than organic.
The book The Rebel Sell, which took a refreshingly critical look at the holier-than-thou anti-consumerist, No Logo movement, had a page or two on the mania for organic food a few years ago. One of the authors, Andrew Potter, commented on his blog last year about the expansion of organic food to Wal-Mart — a highlight:
The main point we make is that the desire for organic is a straightforward bit of yuppie competitive consumption. It is an aspect of the anti-consumerist values at the heart of the mass society critique, and simply creates a market for expensive goods that make the purchaser feel like a better person while simultaneously creating an invidious contrast with those – primarily the working poor – who cannot afford to shop at Whole Foods or comparable stores found in yuppie enclaves.
http://www.rebelsell.com/blog/2006/5/15/the-organic-shuffle.html
I do think dairy products are an exception: organic is definitely better. There’s loads of evidence showing that the antibiotics and bovine growth hormone fed to cows are not good for humans; I have no idea why they continue to be allowed in milk.
I should have added that I don’t think the idea of organic going corporate is necessarily or always a bad thing. Given that most commerce actually happens on a corporate scale, if something’s worth doing, presumably it’s worth doing on a corporate scale.
I have mixed feelings about the Rebel Sell (not having read it but only having a sense of its basic thesis). They have half a point, but to my mind only half a point.
I had the same sense about The Rebel Sell for years and had not read it as a result. I was pleasantly surprised when, after reading some article that referred to it, I did — less smug and annoying than I’d anticipated, and very articulate on many issues that you’d probably agree with.
A follow-up from Utne, which mentions the Globe artile linked above:
Big Organics in Little, Eco-Unfriendly Packages