The Future of Organics???

Large, specialized food systems will quickly dominate global production and distribution of organic foods. Essentially, that means that the organic market will become very much like any other and or all other mass produced foods. So, what will be 'organic' about the organic market? That is a good question.

Firstly, let's remind ourselves what 'organic' was. During the early 1900s, essentially all food was produced without commercial fertilizers and pesticides, simply because they weren’t available. Some farmers continued to produce by organic means, in defiance of the dominant trend toward reliance on inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.

What is not surprising is that organic production was of little interest or concern to the large corporate food organizations until the recent rapid expansion in organic markets. And, now the corporate world is taking notice of the growing organic market which could cause a problem for future corporate profits. They fear that expanding organic markets eventually will cut into their profits from the non-organic food markets. So the economic stakes for control of organic food production and marketing are high.


Perhaps, takeover of smaller organic production will be seen as good after all, more people will have access to 'organic' foods. But, what about the quality? One can be sure that there will be less quality to produce more 'organics'. How/Why? The ground has to be labeled or certified organic and since that is impossible in the bigger growing belts due to years of chemical fertilizer use the 'organics' of the corporate world will likely be produced in synthetic soils or non soil environments and definitely more hands to 'handle' the food with more logistics involved to transport it.

Truly organic is time demanding and plants are coaxed to grow not coerced. With demand high for organic and the demands for consistency and uniformity of product with timeliness of delivery any 'true' organics as in excellent quality food will not be realistic or possible.

The non corporate organic farmers are already being forced to standardize, specialize, and centralize control of their production and distribution processes. Such operations can reduce costs – but only if they are operated at a large scale.

Mmm, my best advice... better plant a garden.



~ source page: http://web.missouri.edu/ikerdj/papers