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The Organic Food Fad is officially dead
Federal Review ^ | Sunday, June 04, 2006

Posted on 06/04/2006 11:08:53 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines

The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart, the bane of all limousine liberals and aging hippies, has entered the "crunchy granola" market:

Beginning later this year, Wal-Mart plans to roll out a complete selection of organic foods — food certified by the U.S.D.A. to have been grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers — in its nearly 4,000 stores. Just as significant, the company says it will price all this organic food at an eye-poppingly tiny premium over its already-cheap conventional food: the organic Cocoa Puffs and Oreos will cost only 10 percent more than the conventional kind. Organic food will soon be available to the tens of millions of Americans who now cannot afford it — indeed, who have little or no idea what the term even means. Organic food, which represents merely 2.5 percent of America's half-trillion-dollar food economy, is about to go mainstream.

With organic food about to become as "mainstream" and "middle America" as Ford Explorers, Kraft singles and "American Idol," how long before the so-called "elites" find it no longer has the same "counterculture" appeal as Volvos, brie and NPR?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; fads; food; grocery; organicfood
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To: brytlea

Organic food has become a huge market, and business is listening. The market driven economy does work sometimes. "Whole Foods" (organic grocery chain) has seen phenomenal growth and earnings. The ONLY way it will work, however, is if the consumer has confidence in the organic products being sold. Walmart has a big hill to climb in that dept., and no, I won't be buying organic from Walmart.

I agree with some posters, the minute the gov or big business gets involved, the integrity of the term "organic" could become compromised.


41 posted on 06/04/2006 11:43:03 AM PDT by khnyny (Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.- Winston Churchill)
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To: khnyny
Also the organic are a different "breed" (is that the correct term?) or berry.

They are bred especially for a large size and length of shelf life, that is why they have no taste.

I prefer alpine berries when I can get them. Small and sweet and oh so good.

42 posted on 06/04/2006 11:43:05 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Every lady in this land hath 20 nails on each hand five and twenty on hand and feet)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

I pick and choose. If the organic is not horribly overpriced and looks more appealing than the non-organic, highly processed, chemical laden stuff, I go with the organic. I figure it can’t hurt. After all I put the high-test gas and best oil in my car. Don’t I want to do the same for my engine?


43 posted on 06/04/2006 11:43:50 AM PDT by Caramelgal (I don't have a tag line.... I am a tag line. So tag, you are it.)
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To: Lil'freeper

Here come the food nazis.


44 posted on 06/04/2006 11:44:01 AM PDT by big'ol_freeper (..it takes some pretty serious yodeling to..filibuster from a five star ski resort in the Swiss Alps)
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To: Concho

They probably seem so miserable because eating such crap sucks up their will to live.

You know though, now that you mention it, I cant really remember seeing a clean, neat looking hippie.

Have you?


45 posted on 06/04/2006 11:44:21 AM PDT by Armedanddangerous (Master of Sinanju (Emeritus))
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To: dalereed

I am waiting for organic, free range beer and snickers bars.


46 posted on 06/04/2006 11:46:38 AM PDT by Armedanddangerous (Master of Sinanju (Emeritus))
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
I recently saw a piece written by a student at MIT in which the kid said that she's convinced that shopping at a place like Whole Foods is *not* about eating healthy foods but,rather,about the conspicuous display of affluence.

With all the Range Rovers and Porche SUVs I see in the parking lot of the Whole Foods market near me,I think she's on to something!

47 posted on 06/04/2006 11:47:06 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative
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To: khnyny
I agree with some posters, the minute the gov or big business gets involved, the integrity of the term "organic" could become compromised.

Fortunately the non-government certifications and and informal network will be in place. Those who eat natural/organic food now will not be fooled.

48 posted on 06/04/2006 11:48:03 AM PDT by A. Pole (Gore:We are the most powerful force of nature.We are changing the relationship between Earth and Sun)
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To: Armedanddangerous

"free range beer"

Hold your glass under the steer and get yourself a warm glass full.


49 posted on 06/04/2006 11:48:46 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

We enter a day when organic foods become mainstream, and those who eat what they eat to be righteous will find a way to differentiate what they eat from what the masses eat.

I shop sometimes at organic type food stores. I have some products I really like, and they sell some stuff in bulk.

I know what A. Pole means about good bread. I've baked my own from time to time, (but I do often use more elaborate recipes than the one recommended, occasionally including things like milk or eggs or chopped nuts or other good stuff).

But there are people who are unhappy that these things might be going mainstream. Why?

Interesting the psychology of that particular tidbit.


50 posted on 06/04/2006 11:49:10 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Mr. Mojo
October 6, 1967

"... dozens of mourners gathered in the panhandle of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to mark the death of Hippie, an imaginary character killed off by overexposure and rampant commercialism.

... By 1969, the spatial foci of hippie culture was no longer the city but the countryside as hippie communities and communes popped up across upstate New York and Vermont and, on the west coast, in northern California, Oregon and Washington."

"Hippie" died in 1967. Any such "counter-culture" comprised of hippies/yuppies/flower children or other ungrateful post-war boomers was as genuine as The Monkees was a real band. Ie., fake.

And they will be remembered for nothing. Not for innocence nor any naive virtues of which they now claim in their old age. Oprah Nation and Monica-Clinton will be their compendious legacy. A most fitting tribute to the commie progeny from a generation before.

51 posted on 06/04/2006 11:49:20 AM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: Concho

You forgot about all the white people wearing dreads and reeking of patchouli. I see them all the time at the Whole Foods here in Baltimore.

Not that there is anything wrong with patchouli, I kind of like it but not when mixed with unwashed hair and BO.


52 posted on 06/04/2006 11:49:53 AM PDT by Caramelgal (I don't have a tag line.... I am a tag line. So tag, you are it.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines; cyborg

I don't know which "food" product is more absurd: Kraft "singles" or "organic Cocoa Puffs."


LOLOLOL


53 posted on 06/04/2006 11:50:35 AM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: Normal4me
Where do you get the seeds to grow Cocoa Puffs?

Just plant some and see how many sprout??

My favorite ironies are watching people who decide to buy organic food, buy in bulk and then throw half of it away after it spoils several days later. Then they begin buying the 'other' organic brands because they have a longer shelf life. Go figure.

54 posted on 06/04/2006 11:50:52 AM PDT by Cvengr
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To: dalereed

Why is organic food garbage????


55 posted on 06/04/2006 11:52:04 AM PDT by cyborg (I just love that man.)
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To: Petronski

Almost as good as 'organic' Velveeta.


56 posted on 06/04/2006 11:52:41 AM PDT by Cvengr
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To: Petronski

If a child likes cereal then organic kid cereal is better. No artificial flavors. Of course now that white trash will be eating organic food, the snotty lih-buh-ruls won't be feeling so special going to Whole Foods. That is why the organic food 'fad' is now dead according to the Slimes, paid operatives of the coventional mass square boxed food companies.


57 posted on 06/04/2006 11:55:41 AM PDT by cyborg (I just love that man.)
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To: Cvengr

I ain't falling for that again. Someone told me if I planted Cheerios I could grow my own donuts. They NEVER came up! ;-)


58 posted on 06/04/2006 11:56:52 AM PDT by Normal4me
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
...organic Cocoa Puffs and Oreos...

Heaven forbid you have any fertilizer or pesticides in your Cocoa Puffs or Oreos. That might make them less nutritious.

59 posted on 06/04/2006 11:57:18 AM PDT by Reaganesque
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To: dalereed
I sort of agree with you.

All of the commercially produced "organic" is inferior in both presentation, shelf life and taste to conventional commercial food.

However, as a person with two 2500 square foot hobby/commercial quality greenhouses and an additional 10000 square feet of raised beds and 20 years work of crop rotation and proper soil amending, organic growing can produce some tasty delights. However, I grow using what I call a modified technique.

My soil amendments are organic plant biomass compost and composted grazing animal poop, fish and a super secret ingredient. I use Methaldehyde around my growing beds to control slugs. Shotguns to control deer and various synthetics to control other critters and pathogens on my fruit trees, ornamental gardens and areas surrounding my beds when required.

I try and keep the growing medium for my vegetables free of chemicals, the rest is nonsense, IMHO.

Genuine organic farming is just not profitable. You can sell at your local farmers market, I did that for a while, but the kool-aid all the vendors drank was offensive to me. Or you can hustle restaurants, but where I live it is too time consuming and there are too few to far between to make the effort worth while. Now, I donate all of my extra to the food banks and friends. And can & freeze like crazy.

The nutritional claims made by the granola heads are as out there as their political beliefs on average.
60 posted on 06/04/2006 11:57:45 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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