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The Rise of “Big Organic” Has Blurred the Line Between Organic and Sustainable

When grocery shoppers choose shelf-stable “boxes” of organic almond milk over refrigerated plastic jugs of conventionally-produced cow milk, they believe they’re doing something good, not only for their own health, but the environment. But the sobering truth is that if shoppers happen to be in a chain supermarket, a “USDA Certified Organic” label on a box of almond milk doesn’t mean what it used to. In fact, some organic farmers now consider the label so meaningless, they refuse to use it on their products.

Organic food production is no longer limited to small, privately owned farms. Consumer demand for organic foods rose sharply over the last decade and a half, from U.S. sales of $6.1 billion in 2000 to $35 billion in 2013.  Not surprisingly, this trend resulted in a dramatic change in the organic agricultural landscape. Multinational corporations including Coca-Cola, Cargill, ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft, and M&M Mars have taken over what has become an increasingly consolidated — and profitable — sector of the food industry.

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