122 animal, vegetable, miracleBut low price has its costs. In order to meet federal organic standards as
cheaply as possible and maximize profits, some industrial- scale organic
producers (though not all) cut every corner that’s allowed, and are lobby-
ing the government to loosen organic rules further. Some synthetic addi-
tives are now permitted, thanks to pressure from industrial organics. So is
animal confinement. A chicken may be sold as “free range” if the house in
which it’s confined (with 20,000 others) has a doorway leading out to a
tiny yard, even though that doorway remains shut for so much of the
chickens’ lives, they never learn to go outside. This is not a theoretical
example. A national brand of organic dairy products also uses confi ned
animals—in this case, cows whose mandated “free range” time may fi nd
them at home in crowded pens without water, shade, or anything resem-
bling “the range.” The larger the corporation, the more distant its motives
are apt to be from the original spirit of organic farming—and the farther
the products will likely be shipped to buyers who will smile at the happy
farm picture on the package, and never be the wiser.
Because organic farming is labor- intensive, holding prices down has
even led some large- scale organic growers into direct conflict with OSHA
and the United Farm Workers. Just over half of U.S. farm workers are
undocumented, and all are unlikely to earn more than minimum wage.
Those employed by industrial- scale organic farms are spared direct con-
tact with pesticides in their work, at least, but often live with their fami-
lies in work- camp towns where pesticide drift is as common as poverty.
The original stated purpose of organic agriculture was not just to pro-
tect the quality of food products, but also to safeguard farm environments
and communities through diversified, biologically natural practices that
remain healthy over time. This was outlined by J. I. Rodale, Sir Albert
Howard, Lady Eve Balfour, and all other significant contributors to the
theory and practice of modern organic agriculture. Implicitly, these are
values that many consumers still think they’re supporting with their pur-
chase of organic products. Increasingly, small- scale food farmers like Amy
feel corporate organics may be betraying that confidence, extracting too
much in the short term from their biotic and human communities, steal-
ing the heart of a movement.
The best and only defense, for both growers and the consumers who