Thursday, May 05, 2005

organic values

Greetings,
In the field of agriculture (har), the production of organic food has earned a fair share of press and a growing (har) market. Organic food sounds so appealing. After all, who can be against safe, wholesome food? None of us, no?

If we want safe wholesome food why do we eat so much crap?

Okay, too many questions, too rhetorical. For the record, I have long supported the idea of organic food production and even more so have promoted community supported agriculture (CSA) organic or otherwise.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/

But I'm no purist. My main replies to people who start in on me about how bad modern commercial farming practices are is to A) Grow your own really, B) get connected to a CSA farm, C) speak with your money and buy organic.

I sincerely believe you can get good food in the basic suburban supermarket, too. But if you're really worried about it, take your money into the market and use it. On point C, it looks like more people are doing exactly as I suggest and creating new niche markets for farmers as they spend.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/agoutlook/apr2000/ao270d.pdf

No comments: