I buy organic food as often as I can afford to. The higher price tag is offset by the good feeling I get knowing that the extra I am paying is going to farmers who care about the environment, and is helping to keep pesticides out of the food chain.
Whatever, right? But what do you do when you read the following two things in the same week:
Treehugger.com says "Organic milk really is healthier", and they go on to say that "organic milk has 68% more omega 3 fatty acids".
Good, good, you say. But wait! The Nation had a special "Food Issue" this week and in the article "Mean or Green?" by Liza Featherstone they mention Horizon, an organic milk producer. Specifically, she writes:
Horizon, which controls 55 percent of the organic dairy market, meets Wal-Mart's low price in part by providing appalling conditions for its cows. The Cornucopia Institute's Mark Kastel, first reached for this article as he was standing on Horizon's 4,000-cow Idaho feedlot, says the cows were "standing in 90-degree heat. No shade, no water. These animals are living very short lives." (To be considered "organic," animals--whether they are raised for meat, milk or eggs--must be given some access to the outdoors. It is an irony of the bureaucracy and inequity surrounding federal certification that by following the letter if not the spirit of such regulations--that is, for some of their lives Horizon's cows are outside, even if they have no room to move around--Horizon can call its milk organic, while many small farmers, whose cows roam freely and munch on grass, cannot; in many cases the farmers can't afford the expense of the certification process, or are put off by the paperwork.) The Organic Consumers Association has urged shoppers to boycott Horizon.
OK, so organic is good, but some organic is bad. How am I supposed to know? I don't have time to read, (and remember), every article on organic food out there. I wish someone would put a big green sticker on all the foods that don't hurt the environment, the animals or the children. Then I could go to the store, and feel good about what I bought and not second-guess myself.
