"Organic" Food

Shopping at Safeway, I saw that it has a new line called O Organics, but is it really organic? Before I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I thought organic meant fresh foods without the use of chemical fertilizers, GMOs, food additives, and synthetic chemicals. I pictured animals, including cows, chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, and rabbits, roaming the field and taking in the fresh air, but I was wrong. Companies still are forcing thousands of animals into cramped areas with little or no sunlight. The USDA has defined organic chicken and cows to have “access to pasture,” which can have an indefinite and loose meaning to it and is an advantage to the big corporations. It is a shame to see our government succumb to them.

Joel Salatin owns Polyface Farm, which is the ideal farm I would like to see rather than the big corporations. He is planting seasonally and fulfilling the natural cycle from the sun providing the plants to grow to the chickens eating up the parasites. The reason chain supermarkets buy from the large companies is because they produce at a larger scale and cost less in transaction costs, according to Michael Pollan. In the future, these practices need to change in order to save diminishing fossil fuels and the environment. A way to start is buying locally at farmer markets or planting foods in the backyard or community gardens.