Angry in the Great White North

Fans of organic food are hopping mad because they've succeeded in increasing demand for organic food:

Organic food is being taken over by big business, marketed as "yuppie chow" for the privileged, and increasingly packaged with as little concern for the environment as conventional food production, says a York University academic researcher.

In a paper to be presented on Friday at Canada's largest gathering of social sciences scholars, Irena Knezevic says that most of the major organic brands on the North American market are now owned by large corporations such as ConAgra, Cargill, Kraft, Coca Cola and Pepsi.

She says their products - along with those sold by retail giants such as Loblaws and Wal-Mart - are turning organic agriculture into product brands that are becoming "a marketing tool more so than an assurance of quality, let alone an assurance of a fair and sustainable production process."

Officials from Loblaws and Wal-Mart were unavailable for comment last night.

Add to this the bitterness aimed at the big food producers:

She says consumers are demonstrating a phenomenal enthusiasm for organic products - the Canadian organic industry is growing by 15 to 20 per cent annually - and a readiness to pay premium prices for the products.

But what research shows, she says, is that organic products are becoming what she describes as a food fetish associated with individual health and body image - status food linked to high disposable income and the leisure time to shop - but ignoring "the heart of organic agriculture."

"Organic agriculture is by definition intertwined with environmentalism, resistance to corporate globalization and the 'back to the land' movement," she says.

It is the environmental and social-justice issues that Ms. Knezevic says are being ignored by consumers and government regulators.

Ms. Knezevic says the Canadian federal government's proposed national labelling for organic foods will tell consumers little about how organic food is produced - little about who produced it or the farmers' environmental and sustainable stewardship of the land, whether the food was locally produced or what economic return farmers got for their labour.

But here's the thing that bothers me. These organic food types are mad at big business for jumping on the bandwagon, and at the government for not regulating the "social goodness" of organic food.

But where is the anger aimed at the organic food producers who sold out, or at the organic food consumers who clearly were not buying enough organic food at high enough prices to keep the operations in business in the face of buyout offers?

Growth for capitalist economies demands ever increasing profit, based on expansion. Family owned and "small" businesses give way to larger and larger enterprises, until Walmart finally replaces the local variety stores, and Wegmans replaces the neighborhood food markets. The same principal has affected farming, and as a consequence we are in danger of losing our local farmers. Already, due to the global industrialization of corporate agribusiness, "farmer" no longer appears on the US census as a job category. This means that less that 2% of the population in our country farms for a living.

The January-February '03 issue of the Cooperative Grocer describes a similar pattern that has occurred among the wholesale food distributors serving the consumer owned coops which sell organic foods. In 1982 there were 28 such wholesale distributors in the US. In 1987 that number had declined to 14, in 2002 there were 6 distributors surviving, and in 2003 there are only 3 wholesale distributors of this kind remaining in the US. This process touched us locally this year, when Northeast Cooperative, the wholesale distributor serving the Syracuse Real Food Coop, declared bankruptcy and was bought out by United Foods, Inc.

And in the end, granola-sucking hemp-wearing organic agriculturalists will sell out for the right amount of cash:

Though Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO) efforts to battle PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) in the juice market took a blow when the company cancelled its marketing and development partnership with Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) last month, it seems to have been given new life today with the announcement that the company agreed to buy Odwalla (Nasdaq: ODWA), a strong and growing player in the premium juices businesses.

Rule Maker and FOOL 50 component Coca-Cola this morning said it will pay approximately $181 million -- or $15.25 per share -- in cash for Odwalla, which markets drinks, smoothies, spring water, and natural food bars under the Odwalla and Samantha brands. The deal is expected to be earnings-neutral in its first year, then boost Coca-Cola's profits down the road.

Odwalla will be folded into Coca-Cola's Minute Maid division, but will remain stand-alone and its management, the press release announcing the merger said, will stay on. "The innovation and expertise of the Odwalla team," said Minute Maid CEO Don Short, "coupled with our innovation and logistics network are key to expanding the brands they have created and nurtured."

So people will buy Odwalla's lines of organic fruit juices, and at the same time, excoriate Coca Cola's alleged environmental record. If the people at Odwalla were really committed to the meaning of organic food, they would have turned down Coke's money.

But they took the money. And they laughed all the way to the bank.

And why did Coke buy Odwalla? Because Odwalla was successful. I suppose then the only way you can assure that your favourite organic food brands remain out of the hands of big business is not to buy it, and encourage your friends not to buy it either.