Mega-grocers cashing in on organics
By Ari LeVaux, Outdoor
Walmart, already one of the country’s largest distributors of organic foods, will gobble up additional market share this summer, thanks to a deal it struck with Wild Oats to carry more than 100 of the natural-food chain’s house-branded products.
The agreement, coming on the heels of Target’s Simply Balanced line, which is 40 percent organic, marks a new era. One obvious benefit is that prices for organic foods should drop nationwide as production increases and competitors are forced to match big-box discounts.
But the supersizing of organic comes at a cost. When the term first gained traction, in the 1980s, it was mainly used by small farms supplying local markets. In 2000, when the Department of Agriculture created the USDA Organic label, its standards included a list of roughly 100 substances, including some synthetic chemicals, that would be allowed in the farming process. The list is picked over incessantly, but in September of last year, the USDA made it more difficult to remove pesticides and herbicides it had already approved.
All of which means that, for consumers, shopping is more complex than ever.
“Mega-grocers cashing in on organics”
Trying to make that sound like it’s a bad thing? It’s simply the market, offering people what they WANT to buy. It’s called capitalism, and so far, it’s still legal.
The other problem, with the USDA’s definition of “organic” is caused, as usual, by your government. They are not here to help you. How many times must we repeat that? They are in a symbiotic relationship with mega-corporations, which is bad for everybody except those who work in government or in those corporations. Trust us, it could be done much better privately and/or locally.
Your government also made it legal for China to export “processed” chicken to the United States without there being any labelling about that fact. Which means if you buy chicken nuggets for the kids, or chicken noodle soup, or any cooked product with chicken in it, you have absolutely no guarantee of quality control. Think about all the dogs poisoned by Chinese dog food additives and jerky treats. Then imagine giving that stuff to your kids.
Your government. Looking out for you.
Wow, Dog, you make it sound so simple….a benign market corrupted by the evil government. Truth is, Industry execs flow towards the government where they then influence policy decisions. As usual, your read on things is ignorant, and you wind up getting it ass-backwards.
Why can’t you understand that without government support, corporations could not control markets the way they do? You have it backward, not me; do you think politicians are innocent in the transactions? Government permits it to happen, encourages it to happen. Your politicians take the corporate money, and then pass laws protecting the crooked corporates. I have repeated this before, but you insist that it’s the corporations that are the bad guy. . . it’s BOTH. But it’s government That wields the POWER and the law.