The Ugly Truth Behind Organic Food

[Orwellian_Ghost]

The organic labeling standards do nothing to denote how farms treat their workers. Is your organic food a humanitarian nightmare?



Plenty of people, including me, prefer organic produce because it is healthier and safer. But this certification does nothing to ensure that it was produced with sustainable agricultural practices.

The little strawberry I'm munching is part of a bigger story that begins in the fields and ends on your plate. It's the story of a lucrative industry that offers consumers a commodity at a low-cost but with high consequences.

Forming the backbone of this industry are the oft-forgotten armies of farmworkers who travel California's freeway arteries to plant and harvest crops in every corner of this region. The policies that oppress the 2 million people who grow our food betray its true costs.

Food writer and activist Eric Schlosser, speaking at the Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco last fall, said that he would rather eat a conventional tomato picked by well-treated workers than a local heirloom variety harvested by oppressed workers.

<snip>

http://www.alternet.org/environment/140001/the_ugly_truth_behind_organic_food/

[imdjh]

1. "offers a commodity at low cost" - where do these people shop?

Prices of organics are coming down from their former Tiffany standard, but they still tend to be pricey.

[blindpig]

2. K&R

How the hell are ya?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

14. Doin' awright

here in minimum security America.

Boarded up buildings everywhere you turn.

So much for change.

How ya' been friend?

[blindpig]

44. Much the same here.

I be as fine as frog hair.

Going to hell fast. The lakeside is filled with people who have nothing else to do on weekdays. Governor John Galt is unimpressed, let them eat fish.

[hedgehog]

3. I think this is a false choice. Show me a conventional tomato

picked by well-treated workers before criticizing organic methods. At least people working for organic farmers don't have to worry about birth defects now and cancers later!

[blindpig]

4. So that makes it OK to pay them poverty wages?

Mighty generous of you.

And quite frankly, I don't trust this rapidly expanding market sector to deliver as promised. How do you really known these products to be what they claim? However good organic was in the beginning now that the Big Boys are in the game all bets are off.

[hedgehog]

7. No, I did not say it was Okay to pay poverty wages. What I meant

is that it is a false argument to suggest that we have a choice between organic food/lousy pay and conventionally grown food/good pay. I don't think any farm workers are properly paid. Suggesting that somehow people working organic farms are paid even more poorly remains to be proven, IMO.

On edit - from the article -

While workers on organic farms aren't exposed to toxic pesticides, he argues that they, like their counterparts on conventional farms, work without the basic protections commonly afforded workers in other blue-collar industries.

Emphasis mine.

[blindpig]

10. 'more poorly' is not the argument, I think.

A lot of folks attach social/environmental responsibility to their 'organic' purchases. It's a lame, mostly useless feel good thing. They should remember the workers.

[hedgehog]

11. This is like people arguing that we shouldn't take care of abandoned

animals in America because children are starving in Africa. Any attempt to improve the world is good, and no one can solve every problem. I buy organic food and donate to the UFW when I can.

[Maru Kitteh]

25. There is nothing lame about supporting farming practices that respect our groundwater and

keeps DuPont/Monsanto/Ortho chemicals off of our food.

What's lame and useless is the argument that because some organic farming pays laborers equally crappy wages as the polluting, poisoning chemical farm industry - all organic produce/product is bunk. THAT is lame and useless.

I can't decide if this falls under a Nirvana fallacy or just plain ignoratio elenchi.

[blindpig]

31. It is not that I am for pesticides and am anti environmental

It is that I trust utterly mistrust these capitalist 'organic' producers to deliver the goods as advertised. Particularly that produced in countries where the regulation process might be questionable. Also, some 'organic' procedures are less benign than advertised, some heavy metals substituted for the standard industrial poisons have long term soil accumulation issues.

Organic is a good idea, and though it has acquired a patina of elitism of recent it employs many salutatory practices, practices which many family farms have long used. In the hands of the capitalist all is dubious.

[truedelphi]

26. Glad to see that you have dodged that criticism.

I think it is very important to not have to worry about pesticides. Although it can still be a harsh way to make a living, it is far better for someone to pick produce on organic farmland than on toxic acreage.

[kestrel91316]

5. So, organic farms treat their workers WORSE than conventional farms?

Really? I never suspected.

And obviously massive exposure to herbicides and pesticides doesn't count as any sort of worker abuse..........

[Reterr]

17. Yeah I am not sure I buy this

Conventional farm is typically some sort of giant agribusiness conglomerate. I guess I can believe that say Walmart's organic label is complete bogus. But, at worst I suspect "organic" is only as bad as the big agra stuff (so pretty bad) but not worse....

Personally, I am usually buying directly from family farms where I know the farmers because I am lucky enough to live near a CSA thingie and the prices are lower than the store prices. I wish everyone was fortunate enough to be able to afford it :(.

[undergroundnomore]

6. I'm reading

the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I think I was suprised to learn how misleading the term "free range chicken" or "free range turkey" really meant. According to Kingsolver, "Free range does not always mean that the animal has been in an open area its whole life. It may only mean they were in a restricted area and let out into that open area one time during their life."

I agree with the comments regarding the exposure to chemicals. The ramifications of that exposure is criminal.

[hedgehog]

9. Big agriculture has been trying to control labeling for at least 30 some

years, maybe longer. You and I know what we mean by "natural", but you'd be amazed by what Con-Agra attempts to put under that label! Check out Rodale Press's "Organic Gardening Magazine" for updates from the trenches.

[underpants]

15. Exactly-they are paying the pols to let them call whatever they make "organic"

and at the same time making the standard for "organic" harder and harder to meet for actual organic farmers

[Chulanowa]

21. Sort of like the restrictions on dairy

Raw milk is illegal.
You need to be a dairy megacorp to meet most requirements for dairy processing
You're required to advertise for your competitors that use hormones.

[EndersDame]

8. Support your local family farms or Grow yer Own!

just make sure you treat yourself well

[coinstar queen]

12. Good point! CSAs are becoming more and more popular these days...

The only thing is that in my state (and perhaps everywhere) you have to pay the farmer upfront. But you get a delivery of LOCAL organic produce for your family for half the year (spring/summer/beginning of fall)! And there are surprises every week because they give you what's in season. Supposedly, it's a good deal, too.

[SpiralHawk]

13. The lowdown on CSA - and a batch of links

http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. CSA's are rapidly becoming food for the gentry

I worked and lived on a CSA for 3 years and saw the decline which only represented the national trend.

Some are trying to serve the poor in specific ways such as low-income shares and sending produce out to food banks but CSA's are for the most part 'feel-good' food shares for the leisure-liberal class.

[anigbrowl]

18. Good grief. is ANYTHING ever good enough for you?

FYI, I grow some of my own food, but I suppose that makes me a class enemy because I'm denying someone a job by doing so. Sheesh.

[truedelphi]

28. A comment overheard on the BART subway and reported in the

San Francisco Chronicle - "The only real way that I could help the earth TOTALLY is if I just give up and DIE!"

For some, I guess it will have to come to that.

[anigbrowl]

29. I would certainly be willing to assist in such a worthy sacrifice :-)

[eppur_se_muova]

45. *Assuming* no enbalming and a coffinless burial, that might pass muster. :)

[Orwellian_Ghost]

49. This has nothing to do with me

This has to do with the greater good. Folks who see things through the lens of personal benefit may not understand that and are not really talking about politics anyway.

Now you may be a class enemy but growing your own food does not indicate as such. Not sure why such a bizarre non-sequitir is suppose to mean anything at all.

Try discussing the topic at hand instead of being reactionary.

[SpiralHawk]

35. Putting people into direct connection with the land and the people who grow their food

is a positive development leading to many good outcomes. In every initiative there exists a possibility that good intentions and plans can be soured, but if you look at CSA as a whole -- there are now over 13,000 of the in the USA http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/amid-abrupt-economic-environmental-change-csa-emerges-as-a-resourceful-strategy/ -- there is no decline, there is no overall 'feel-good' diversion, and there is lots and lots of good, healthy, healing stuff happening.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

50. Please tell me

what it is CSA's are doing to assist the poor and hungry who have little or no money.

Now I don't mean any malice towards the many good folks who are involved in CSA's I'm telling you from years of intimate first-hand experience that CSA's are well on their way to being co-opted. If you just look at who drives up to the barn and gets their package of food and then drives off you can't deny that for the most part CSA's are serving the middle to upper-middle class white liberals.

I also find it rather dubious that many folks are "getting in touch" with the land whatever that means, through CSA's.

We could go into this in detail and I could give you many accounts and give you direct examples from my experience. At present I live in an area where there are probably more CSA's per capita than anywhere else in the US. This will be the first year I won't be involved in a CSA either indirectly or directly for over a decade. Like the organic movement itself and the food Co-Op movement the CSA movement is heading right towards the cash. That means it can not serve the interests of most people.

[stuntcat]

32. ty

thank you for that link! I'm in the middle of a busy city and I can't drive, but looking around at these links maybe I can figure something out, how to sign up.

(at least I have some yard, so I have a big veggie patch :headbang:)

[question everything]

19. I hope that the "fair trade" label on the coffee can that I purchase

at Trader Joe's is what it says.

[hedgehog]

37. Here is an explanation of what the Fair Trade Label means:

We are 24 organizations working to secure a better deal for producers. We own the FAIRTRADE Mark - the product label that certifies international Fairtrade standards have been met.


http://www.fairtrade.net/standards.html

[Mythsaje]

20. The only way I can see to guarantee you know this much about your food

is to grow it yourself... or know those who grow it personally.

[undergroundpanther]

22. Organic label means nothing.

http://pollan.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/05/15/wal-mart-goes-organic-and-now-for-the-bad-news/?apage=1

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/276508/protect_yourself_from_genetically_modified_foods/index.html

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/organic.html

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news/organic_food_definition_will_soon_contain_38_more_inorganic_ingredients

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6187.cfm

Is cruelty free really cruelty free?
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/12/13/crueltyfree/

[blindpig]

33. Nothing to see here, move along.

:thumbsup:

[hedgehog]

36. There is a lot of debate out there about the safety and nutrition of

organic food. State and Federal governments are under pressure from large processors to disguise any differences. However, in general, I have noted that the people criticizing organic food have a vested interest in conventional agriculture. For example, here is a quote from your link to Quackwatch:

More Nutritious?

Organic foods are certainly not more nutritious <12>. The nutrient content of plants is determined primarily by heredity. Mineral content may be affected by the mineral content of the soil, but this has no significance in the overall diet. If essential nutrients are missing from the soil, the plant will not grow. If plants grow, that means the essential nutrients are present. Experiments conducted for many years have found no difference in the nutrient content of organically grown crops and those grown under standard agricultural conditions.
Safer?

Many "organic" proponents suggest that their foods are safer because they have lower levels of pesticide residues. However, the pesticide levels in our food supply are not high. In some situations, pesticides even reduce health risks by preventing the growth of harmful organisms, including molds that produce toxic substances <12>.

That sounds pretty damning, until you check the source:

12 Newsome R. Organically grown foods: A scientific status summary by the Institute of Food Technologists' expert panel on food safety and nutrition. Food Technology 44(12):123-130, 1990.

"Food Technologists"?

Of course, these people are advocates for organic food, but they would say it is more nutritious:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/10587.php

http://www.organicauthority.com/organic-food/organic-food-articles/declining-nutritional-value-of-produce-due-to-high-yield-selective-seed-breeding.html

Your best bet is to keep reading and keep listening. In general, I've found organic food to be more flavorful, and I have a gut feeling that nutrition follows flavor.

[blindpig]

38. "conventional agriculture"

I think it is important to differentiate between the family farm and farms owned or leased by corporations/big business. One of the failures of the 'organic movement' is their broad brush in this regard.

[hedgehog]

40. The family farms are in competition with the corporations and often in thrall to them.

What about the man who is essentially a sharecropper for one of the big poultry companies? He buys the chicks they sell him and feeds them exactly the mix of grains and supplements they specify. Then , if he's lucky, he sells the chickens back at maturity. Family farmer or corporate farmer? He may want to give the chickens more cage space or feed them something different, but he's forced to follow the packing company's rules if he wants to make a sale.


Here in New York, Monsanto has abandoned marketing its Bovine Growth Hormone because dairy farmers here decided the costs outweighed the benefits. Herds here are smaller than on California factory farms and spend more time out on pasture.

I think organic farming with its emphasis on sustainable agriculture favors the family farm. Corporate agriculture results in massive herds confined to barns and miles and miles of mono-cropping dependent on herbicides, GM seed and pesticides.

[blindpig]

41. The pity is that some small farmers are forced to that .

Were it not for the preponderance of those 800 lb gorillas Small farmers would not be forced to that expediency. People are desperate to stay on the land.

If organic favors the family farm why do they paint with such a broad brush?

[hedgehog]

42. I'm not sure what you're getting at. I've subscribed to Rodale's Organic Gardening

for years and if anything, it endorses the small family farm as being more attuned to the ecology. The demonstration farm reaches out to family farmers:

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/on_our_farm

[medeak]

23. self delete as dupe

[medeak]

24. just returned from Italy

was told "you Americans pay so much for organic produce but here everything is organic" (and tastes phenominal) Perhaps the real questioon should be why aren't all our farms organic and when will we stop producing processed food full of chemicals and hormones?

[truedelphi]

27. That is good information. I did not know that. n/t

[bridgit]

30. I'm sure the air smells more fresh in Tuscany yes?

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0311973520071003

[Raskolnik]

43. Why aren't all our farms organic? Because herbicides and pesticides and chemical fertilizers work.

And work really, really well in producing vast amounts of food with relatively little manual labor. If every farm in the U.S. switched to "organic" methods, our food production would plummet and prices would skyrocket.

Of course, the argument remains about whether our current methods of production are sustainable in the long run, but we cannot pretend that there aren't some pretty compelling reasons to use "non-organic" methods in many circumstances.

[datasuspect]

34. jello biafra so delightfully described suburban liberal hypocrisy once:

So you been to school
For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car
Thinkin' you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl

Play ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five grand stereo
Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slums got so much soul

It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear…
Brace yourself, my dear…

It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife

You're a star-belly sneech
You suck like a leach
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
But your boss gets richer off you

Well you'll work harder
With a GUN in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake

Now you can go where people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son…
What you need, my son…

Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people dress in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack

Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot,
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot...

And it's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
A holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul

Pol Pot!

[Jennicut]

39. We are attempting to grow some of our own fruits and veggies.

Our girls love our garden.
We will see how it goes. I am afraid that we may get yucky corn worms. That happened to some of the corn we grew last year. Disgusting. But there are some natural ways to control them.

[NashVegas]

46. Always I Love To See Something Progressives Worked 30 Years For Get Trashed on DU

By articles that paint a broad brush attacking ALL organics when it's the factory farms that are still, as always, the problem.

I don't know who TF Sarah Newman is, and I'm sure she means well but the fact she's written this column tells me to doubt she ever had a thought for organic foods before 1998 or so. Before Whole Foods and Wild Oats exploded and organics shoppers didn't depend on trendy websites to educate ourselves about where our food was coming from.

Food writer and activist Eric Schlosser, speaking at the Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco last fall, said that he would rather eat a conventional tomato picked by well-treated workers than a local heirloom variety harvested by oppressed workers.

Fuck Schlosser. Slow Food in the USA is little more than a marketing gimmick. If Schlosser has evidence of organic farms mistreating workers, he should go after those farms, full-throttle, instead of smearing the whole movement.

[NashVegas]

47. ps - The Article Doesn't Offer Even One Verifiable Fact of Abuses on Organic Farms

And yet it attacks all organics.

Alternet, we hardly knew ye.

[riverdeep]

48. It's very trendy to attack affluent liberals,

but it reveals a stark reality. Liberal values are easier to implement when there is general affluence. When a nation is very poor, it becomes difficult to realize higher concerns. Of course, affluence is only part of it, it's the values part that is just as important. People can also wind up living in McMansions and having six cars.

[maryf]

51. Surprised Two Americas hasn't piped in here...

He was always so knowledgeable on the ag stuff...??? Great stuff, would have rec'd if I could have...