With only a 2% share of the $500 Billion food market, the 20% growth of the Organic Movement has caught the eyes of the big boys.
The New York Times reports this morning that Wal-Mart (there’s a name I’d trust to serve wholesome, organic foods. . . .NOT!), McDonald’s,  Kraft, General Mills, etc all want a piece of the Organic Label.

And it seems they may have a chance now that Congress has weakened what "Organic" means. I can’t think of anything else to say, but ASSHOLES!

Now that the term "Organic" has been watered down the field is wide open for all the big players to cash in on the idea of purity and health, even if they have no intention of complying with the letter of the law.

Coming to Organic food near you: Synthetic cleaners, GM ingredients, Antibiotics, Growth Hormones, and "non-organic ingredients…substituted for organic ingredients without any notification of the public based on ‘emergency decrees’".

Now more than ever, those of us who use Organic products should be looking at where they come from. I was horrified to find that a company I trusted as small, and organic–even local, because they have growers and distributors in our area–is actually owned and managed by General Mills. It is obvious that the Government has bowed to pressure from major Argribusiness and profit mongers and has thrown "truth in advertising" even further into the pit.

Where has trust gone? How can we manage our way through the morass of labeling and codes and mis-information? Sing it with me once again, BUY LOCAL when you can!
By supporting local, organic agriculture (whenever you can)–where you know the farmer and can check out their operation–you are in control of what you eat.
I am beginning to think that if I have a farmer’s pledge that his products were grown without artificial means, in a sustainable way, with minimal interference from chemicals or processing then that is infinitely better than a "Certified Organic by the USDA" stamp even if said farmer can’t call his products "organic."
Another source for information and goodness is your local Organic Co-Op. I was interested to find, this past week, that the one I shop at can’t buy Farmed Fish by their own "charter" because of all the  troubles there are with aquaculture. . . .

 

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