Mega-producers tip scales as organics go mainstream

SFgate.com ^ | April 30, 2006 | Carol Ness

[KneelBeforeZod]

Thirteen and a half million servings of organic romaine, radicchio and baby greens. That's how much Earthbound Farm, the biggest organic produce company in the country, sends out across America from its gigantic San Juan Bautista processing plant every single week.

That's one big bowl of salad -- way bigger than when Myra and Drew Goodman started Earthbound Farm in their Carmel Valley living room in 1984. They now farm 26,000 organic acres.

This is the yin of the organic food movement as it plunges headlong into the American mainstream.

The yang is County Line Harvest farmer David Retsky, steering an orange tractor to sow organic Palla Rosa radicchio, Easter Egg radishes and Cosmic Purple carrots on the six hilly acres he farms outside Petaluma. Retsky and his small crew handpick whatever is ready, and sell it the next day to a few farmers' markets and restaurants, plus a specialty wholesaler, in Oakland and San Francisco.

SNIP>>>>>>

[WorkingClassFilth]

How do you know that they are really so called organic, because the farmer told you, would you like to buy some bridge stock???

Well, the very name Organic, ehrn used as a product descriptor, is now Federal property. To comply with those standards, the growers have to jump through a series of hoops and be certified. In the end, though, many crops and products are still subject random contamination and, like honey, no real protection against supposed chemical detriment.

I can understand the desire of people to know where their food comes from and to have some control over what they eat. Unfortunately, for many, it becomes a fear based belief system and taken to its extreme, more like bad religion.

[Balding_Eagle]

even fictitious relatives

Believe what you will, they were our guest for Thanksgiving. Driving a brand new F250.

of people who make stuff up trying to defend bloated, government subsidized farming.

I'm not trying to defend anything. My father hated any govenment involvment, and we resisted it as long as we could. If I were still farming, I'd be selling organic.

I'm laughing at your foolishness.

What got me started with you was your "Baloney" assertion that somehow growing organic doesn't affect how many people we can feed.

I left farming 20 years ago. At that time the total corn crop was a little under 7 B bushels. Today, 20 years later, on less ground, using fewer inputs, we produce over 12 billion. That all came from conventional farming. Organic farming would produce about 4 billion poor quality, not 12.

Go spend your money, more power to you, but don't spread the lie that everyone can do organic. They can't

[WorkingClassFilth]

I agree with what you say.

Personally, I have an organic garden largely because I'm lazy and don't want ag chemicals laying around with critters and kids. Having said that, I have no problem with proper use of ag chemicals if needed and part of a sound IPM program.

Conventional agriculture (AKA: input agriculture, green revolution technology, etc.) does, indeed, feed the world. Norman Borlaug did more to alleviate human suffering than any other person in the history of the world. In fact, probably 25% or India and China today is alive because of his hybrid selection program and chemical input use. The bottom line is that Western ag feeds the world and, as you said, it does so with less land each year and less and less inputs every year.

Organic ag, OTOH, can never, will never, meet the world's needs. The biomass needed to replenish the soil's loss over much of the fertile world could never be met without direct importation at a tremendous cost - in effect, unsustainable. Like you, I am intending on making organic ag production a larger part of my own enterprises and, in the future, the main basis of my land's production - because of the money.

[Orbiting_Rosie's_Head]

Go spend your money, more power to you, but don't spread the lie that everyone can do organic. They can't

If your friend is getting rich from "fools" like me, why not? Your view doesn't make any sense. Every day I see more and more "health food" on the shelves without the usual conglomeration of additives, hormones, chemicals, etc. It seems the world is full of fools. Imagine: Some people want something they consider good, and someone else is willing to provide it. What a shame. I'll buy my organinc milk, and you can have your 12 billion bushels of corn, most of which is wasted making sweetners for soda-pop, and inefficient fuel that tears up the engine in your car.

[yhwhsman]

I'll stick with organic milk for now. That way I won't have to worry about my sons growing saggy man breasts.

No, but you evidently don't mind raising the risks of your son developing type 1 diabetes.

Cow's milk is not good for anyone to consume. You don't even get the benefits of the calcium after two years of age. It has been implicated in causing type 1 diabetes as well as possibly causing many food allergies.