We, as Americans, have been very spoiled by low, low Wal-Mart prices. We expect that fruits and veggies will be low cost, plentiful, and available year-round. (There was a comic in our local paper showing a woman shopping for fruit, which had a sign reading, "Oranges picked by American workers, 3 for $20" LOL)
Wal-Mart has a long and storied history of bullying their suppliers into bottom-barrel prices. There is no such thing as "fair-market price" when you deal with Wal-Mart. Farmers who deal with Wal-Mart will have to scrabble to make ends meet, which could force them into illegal activities (like hiring undocumented workers) or force them to sell their farms to commerical growers. And wouldn't THAT be convenient?!
The article highlights the disturbing new lobbying by larger organic firms (Kraft and General Mills have organic branches) to change some of the requirements for the label "organic" to include foods made with certain "natural" ingredients (like dyes and preservatives, things I am allergic to). That will probably happen in the next year or so. Yech.
I don't think non-organic food is necessarily more healthy, just grown in better conditions. It's the difference between quality and price, you know? Better quality, higher price. Wal-Mart has kind of destroyed that universal truth.
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Date: 2006-03-31 05:26 am (UTC)Wal-Mart has a long and storied history of bullying their suppliers into bottom-barrel prices. There is no such thing as "fair-market price" when you deal with Wal-Mart. Farmers who deal with Wal-Mart will have to scrabble to make ends meet, which could force them into illegal activities (like hiring undocumented workers) or force them to sell their farms to commerical growers. And wouldn't THAT be convenient?!
The article highlights the disturbing new lobbying by larger organic firms (Kraft and General Mills have organic branches) to change some of the requirements for the label "organic" to include foods made with certain "natural" ingredients (like dyes and preservatives, things I am allergic to). That will probably happen in the next year or so. Yech.
I don't think non-organic food is necessarily more healthy, just grown in better conditions. It's the difference between quality and price, you know? Better quality, higher price. Wal-Mart has kind of destroyed that universal truth.