Living Organic
LIVING ORGANIC
Organic are a bunch of question marks, some of which (changes in organic technology for example) are more likely to turn into plus signs if we make a daily habit of choosing organics. That’s the main issue in the big picture. There are other related problems that are important, like the fact that nationally, we wildly overproduce calories and somewhat underproduce nutrition with our land. This distortion is the result of government subsidies, not the result of irrational decisions on the part of consumers. The upshot is that nationally, we have a very thick margin with which to experiment with organic. The current conventional system is giving us too many calories and too few nutrients, and even if we lose production of many of those calories as the result of letting organics compete more fairly with conventionals (by eliminating subsidies), the market in nutrition is already unsubsidized, so we are likely to remain quite well-fed. This links to the global problems of hunger and malnutrition in ways that tend to bias calculations of how many organics could possibly feed. To the extent that we produce large surpluses of commodity crops like corn and soy, and that surplus gets shipped as aid, we cause prices to drop to the point that foreign farmers–a large portion of the population in many developing countries–are put out of business, and hunger actually goes up. Meanwhile used airable land–the major limiting factor for organic production–goes down, and the land degrades with lack of maintenance, limiting future possible organic production. Dedication to the current conventional system thereby makes the failure of organics a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is a shame because eventually we will hit peak oil. How well we do at that time will depend on how much we have invested in vs.
Substances that are synthetic, or not widely available using organic production methods, can be used in organic processed foods as long as they are first approved by the usda. But the agency’s list of these allowable non-organic ingredients keeps growing and there are worries that continual additions to the list will weaken the meaning of organic certification and not live up to what consumers expect. A 2005 court decision forced usda to revise its procedures for allowing ingredients onto the list of acceptable substances, but unfortunately the agency’s response was a proposal to allow 38 more synthetics onto the list, sparking a wave of controversy and public outcry. By summer of 2008, the issue still wasn’t settled. This is a good example of how important it is that consumers keep an eye on the integrity of the standards behind the labels they rely on. However, the fact that corporations have involved themselves in organic food production is not all bad. As large corporations sell more organic food, more acres of land are being protected from chemical pesticides and fertilizers, thus helping the environment and the soil in which our food is grown. Additionally, corporate organic products have significantly raised awareness of organics among consumers. Buying organic products is the first step in the learning processes necessary to create a more sustainable food system.