Organic is the new gourmet

I would love to eat only organic, free-range food – and I’m in good company. One study shows that 70% of Americans have at least some concern about the health effects of pesticides and other chemicals. Problem is, the cost. Organics are so much more expensive – Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky was on the Colbert Report last night, to tell us about what she learned taking the Food Stamp Challenge – where four members of Congress agreed to live on what the average ood stamp allotment would be for that week. Not surprising to any of us who have ever been on food stamps, she found that the amount of food stamps in the average family allotment amounts to about $3 a day – not enough to eat nutritious, healthy meals (even with the luxury of a stove to cook on and a fridge to store it in). The question was posed about the studies showing how poor people are statistically more likely to be obese; Congresswoman Schakowsky pointed out how with so little money to buy food with, the poor are forced to buy the cheapest, most processed, highest in fats, least nutritious food available.

The reason organics are so expensive comes down to, in the end, government regulation: the mega agri-businesses like ADM get millions of dollars in tax cuts and incentives, thereby keeping their costs extremely low. And in fact, if you look at the cost of everything else in America, food is the one thing that has not skyrocketed.

For once, I can’t get outraged by what is, essentially, corporate welfare. The reasoning behind it was certainly noble: to make sure that food would be cheap enough so that no American should go hungry. Even the reasoning behind most of the pesticides and chemical fertilizers used by the industry is somewhat altruistic: to grow as much food, to feed as many people, as possible.

The problem is, they can’t plead ignorance anymore. It has been 45 years since “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson’s seminal (or should I say “ovular?”) work exposing the deadly effects of pesticides. Since then, study after study has shown that all the byproducts of our food-producing industry – runoffs from pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and animal waste – are deadly to both human and nature. Yet the industry, like any other entrenched institution, doesn’t want to change.

Here is where we come in. Of course, “voting with your dollars” is a very effective method for creating change. Because of it, demand for organics has far outstripped supply – and keeps it expensive.

But those of us who don’t have enough dollars to vote with can still demand change. With all the millions of dollars ADM and others get from us, the taxpayers, they must be held to task for their practices. With an invigorated and competent EPA and DoA, we could force the giant agri-businesses to use organic and sustainable farming practices. An army of county extention agents could offer information on organic farming to 4-H’s and individual farmers across the nation. And we, the people, could demand that our foods be healthy, pure, and sustainably grown.