(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Mark Morford wrote today about the misappropriation of "organic food." He didn't use the word misappropriation, but that is what he's describing.

Kellogg's Organic Rice Krispies. It's sort of like saying "Lockheed Martin Granola Bars" or "Exxon Bottled Spring Water." Self-immolating, and not in a good way.

...Did you already understand the real definition? Because that's what "organic" was really supposed to mean, way back when: local, sustainable, ethical, connected to the source, pesticide- and hormone-free. But the vast majority of organic products now flooding the market only glom onto that last aspect (and sometimes, barely even that), to meet the USDA's impotent organic guidelines.

What has been removed from the idea of "organic food" is the part that was challenging to the status quo: that people should buy from local producers who use sustainable and ethical methods.

The tranformation of Whole Foods founder John Mackey from leftist to Libertarian illustrates the mechanisms at work. "Profit" cannot be pursued without putting your interests ahead of everyone else's. It represents deliberate shortsightedness and selfishness. You cannot profit without exploiting the people who work for you -- and you can get away with exploiting them because people without property have very little alternative (and, increasingly, insufficient preparation for anything else in their state-sponsored schooling) but to work for someone.

For someone to start out as a self-proclaimed Marxist, to get into business and then two years later proclaim conversion to Libertarianism, underpaying his workers and opposing their attempts to collectively empower themselves, leads one to question whether he ever really understood the Marxian philosophy in the first place. I think it is doubtful. At its heart Marxism is not about theories and numbers, it is about injustice and human suffering, even if addressing those things means less economic "growth" and profit.

Most people now learn about organic food from their supermarket and from corporate advertising on TV. These sources are not going to say that the organic movement started as a rebellion against their unsustainable practices, their dependence on underpaid migrant labor and oil used to transport vegetables across the country. Most Americans will never even know that this is why the organic movement was started. They will hear about the lack of pesticides and fewer added chemicals and think that is what organic food is.

This is how the upper class subverts the language of dissent and makes its words and phrases meaningless.

Comments

[symwyse.livejournal.com]

I thought this little blurb was great:
Unless you shop at farmers' markets or quasi-hippie co-ops, or unless you do your homework and find a true family-run farm within 100 miles of your home and establish a relationship with them and really begin to buy local, the odds that the next "organic" product you buy truly meets the original definition are about as high as those of finding real breasts at the Playboy mansion. And for now, maybe this is just the way it has to be.

[jaedanicole.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of organic foods but the sight of "Kraft Organic Macaroni & Cheese" was enough to send me recoiling in horror. somehow, the addition of the word "organic" and a green tinted, "natural" themed box makes powdered cheese healthy?

[shaunathan.livejournal.com]

I find the Libertarian philosophy horrible. On the surface, they lure you in with promises of "less government" and the such. I mean, who doesn't the like the idea of the government not butting into your business? But once you start digging deeper, and get into their economic model, you see it for what it really is. Laisez-faire captialism is not the answer to our problems, and it would only lead to the exploitation of workers, as you noted in your entry.

As for organic products, in my last month at Food Lion, a customer came in asking if we had an organic section. Apparently, some stores do, but ours didn't, and all the organic products were to be found in their respective departments. I remember the only organic coffee we carried was a Seattle's Best variety, and it was the only coffee we carried that bore the Fair Trade certified seal. I thought it was cool that the product carried it, but the rest of the line didn't have it, so I thought buying it really didn't solve the problem...

[wyndhover.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Darned fine point.

[lassiter.livejournal.com]

Mackey, a vegetarian, a former long-haired and bearded commune resident, a student of ecology, yoga and eastern philosophy,

Whaaa??? Mackey was a frat boy! He got the capital to buy out a small group of local organic stores called Good Food Stores here in Austin because he saw the local hippies were willing to spend good bucks on the stuff. Good Food Stores became Whole Foods Market, but Mackey was always a self-admitted libertarian capitalist who had, at best, contempt for hippies.

[el-christador.livejournal.com]

Because that's what "organic" was really supposed to mean, way back when: local, sustainable, ethical, connected to the source, pesticide- and hormone-free.

It's too bad that to convey this concept they adopted a commonly-used English word that actually means something else. Excellent words to convey the concepts "local, sustainable, ethical, connected to the source" might be e.g. "local", "sustainable", "ethical" and "connected to the source". "Organic" is a terrible choice because it means, well, organic. From biological sources or living things. This is the original meaning which far antedates "organic food", and is also a much more widely used sense. This is the meaning which gave "organic chemistry" its name, and "organic mood disorders" and such like their names. This is probably why the French translation of "organic" (in the sense of "organic" food) is "biologique" i.e. biological.

His complaint seems to be that people are using the word "organic" to mean what it has always meant, and that when they (the pioneers of "organic" food) called it "organic", people thought they actually meant "organic", which seems an entirely reasonable interpretation on the part of people.

What has happened is that his attempt to prescribe usage has failed, as such attempts typically do. You can tell people that "black" means "white" all you want, but usually they'll keep on using "black" to mean "black" and "white" to mean "white". Language usage is relentlessly democratic: The Common People get to say what words mean, and they do, and this is an instance of that.

[aerope.livejournal.com]

both this entire post, and your comment, pinpointed the reason the organic food movement (to which i've only been exposed in the last couple years) confuses me. isn't almost all food organic (with the exception, of say, easy mac)? why is eating genetically modified or hormone-involving food worse by definition than organic food, especially when genetically modified crops can be really helpful in less wealthy regions? i can get behind buying local food, in season and sustainably produced, especially since i live in a farming area. but i really don't see why a package of noodles from minnesota needs to be organic.