The Wall Street Journal reports on what it calls “the rapid commercialization of the organic movement” and how it has “provoked a backlash by some of the very farmers and activists who popularized organic farming in the first place.”
Because “organic” has become more mainstream and the application of the term is now governed by federal guidelines, - covering specific practices and farming techniques – some suppliers are using new terms to differentiate their products, such as "Biodynamic," "Food Alliance Certified," "local" and even "beyond organic."
“The goal of the new terminology,” the WSJ writes, “is to describe practices not included in the government's organic regulations.”
Because “organic” has become more mainstream and the application of the term is now governed by federal guidelines, - covering specific practices and farming techniques – some suppliers are using new terms to differentiate their products, such as "Biodynamic," "Food Alliance Certified," "local" and even "beyond organic."
“The goal of the new terminology,” the WSJ writes, “is to describe practices not included in the government's organic regulations.”
- KC's View:
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Of course, the intervention of the federal government in creating organic standards was originally done to simplify consumer understanding of what organic means…and now the situation gets murkier still.
On the other hand, we admire the efforts by some companies to aggressively define themselves on their own terms…something that more retailers should do.
Can you imagine if some supermarket actually defined itself as being something other than a supermarket? That instead of saying “us, too” some retailer said “we’re not them”…and actually lived up to the promise?
