Going Organic – Part II

As I posted a while ago, Watkins now has a line of 19 USDA certified organic spices (available in US only for now). Apparently, this is in large part with thanks to Wal-Mart of all companies. Yes, Watkins does business with Wal-Mart. As well as other large US retailers, (Target and others) as part of their retail initiative to get the Watkins brand name back out there. With larger retailers buying Watkins products to stock, Watkins can buy more, and sell at a lower price, even to direct customers through their traditional sales associates like me.

Well, a while ago, Wal-Mart decided that it wants to carry organic foods, to allow low income families the option of going organic (organics in most retail stores are pricey enough to keep a large percentage of buyers away). When Wal-Mart decides to eat healthy, that’s sayin’ something! Although, I’m really not sure how I feel about this, for various reasons.

I had read on a message board that the USDA had loosened the rules for organics just for Wal-Mart. This comment annoyed me enough to do some research, and it turns out, the rules were not relaxed for Wal-Mart, they were relaxed for other food manufacturers, like Dole:

And large companies have tried to use their muscle in Washington to their advantage. Last fall, the Organic Trade Assn., which represents corporations like Kraft, Dole, and Dean Foods, lobbied to attach a rider to the 2006 Agricultural Appropriations Bill that would weaken the nation's organic food standards by allowing certain synthetic food substances in the preparation, processing, and packaging of organic foods. That sparked outrage from organic activists. Nevertheless, the bill passed into law in November, and the new standards will go into effect later this year.

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Further to that, now that Wal-Mart is going organic, organic farms are getting bigger and bigger. This is not necessarily better.

We have already seen what happens when the logic of the factory is applied to organic food production. The industrialization of organic agriculture, which Wal-Mart's involvement will only deepen, has already given us "organic feedlots" — two words that I never thought would find their way into the same clause. To supply the escalating demand for cheap organic milk, agribusiness companies are setting up 5,000-head dairies, often in the desert. These milking cows never touch a blade of grass, instead spending their days standing around a dry-lot "loafing area" munching organic grain — grain that takes a toll on both the animals' health (these ruminants evolved to eat grass, after all) and the nutritional value of their milk. But this is the sort of milk (deficient in beta-carotene and the "good fats" — like omega 3's and C.L.A. — that come from grazing cows on grass) we're going to see a lot more of in the supermarket as long as Wal-Mart determines to keep organic milk cheap.

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In 10 (or less) years’ time, what exactly will “organic” mean? Who knows, now that Wal-Mart is writing the dictionary.

Good or bad news to the smaller family organic farms? Only time will tell I s’pose. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart usually. Our local doesn’t have a full grocery section. But the Super Wal-Mart is in the city plans, hopefully we’ll be gone by then. Target is also coming, so its not all bad. ;-) But for now, I’ll keep buying organics at Bo-Lo and Ingles. At $5 for a gallon of organic milk, or 75 cents for a serving of organic yogurt, its still a bit out of our everyday price range. But I still refuse whenever possible to buy products with high fructose corn syrup in them, so I buy organic cookies (Newman Os), and organic breads, and organic breakfast cereals (yep, the ones made by the biggies, who’ve apparently changed the USDA legislation).

Its all kind of bitter sweet. Sweetened with natural organic sugars, not hfcs of course.  ¶ 11:39 AM