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As organic food is now set to hit the big time with venture-capital
investors looking to make money, I'm concerned the organic
standards will be compromised and become diluted or even misleading
in some cases. When industrial organic takes over, they'll
want to reduce standards to make more profit, making some
producers bend the rules as far as possible. Look what they
did to “conventional” food—produced a million
products out of the cheapest ingredients (wheat, corn and
sugar); some of these products even claim some special health
benefits.
Industrial organic players have a completely different motivation
and set of ethics, as they are backed by the same interests
of conventional food marketing. Maybe they'll bring organics
to the masses via the supermarkets, which would be a good
thing, but perhaps at the cost of dividing the organic community
or even taking it over and reinventing it. Tom's of Maine
went under to Colgate; let's wait and see what they do with
it…and how long will they carry the same integrity as
Tom's, which built respect and trust with consumers.
The guardians of organics are the farmers; can they maintain
integrity and control without being bullied by Wall Street
into some sort of semi-organic industrial style production
line with little concern for the environment or community?
Or will “organic” be merely another corporate-owned
business operating for maximum profit and continued growth?
Roderick Foster
New York
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