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At 01:05 11/03/99 -0600, Jill Taylor Bussiere wrote:
>At the Organic Conference, one of our keynote speakers talked on the
>coopting of the word "organic". How the powers for profit are trying to
>weaken the meaning of the word, and to make it a mainstream, government
>regulated (therefore corporate regulated) practice/term. He urged us to let
>go of the term, if we must, but keep the practices that we have been
>following - and keep the integrity of the movement.
>
[For the whole article, please go to the Le Monde diplomatique webpage. David]
LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE
_________________________________________________________________
Le Monde diplomatique
english edition
March 1999
...
ORGANIC FOOD: LIES AND PROFITS
Bio business is big business
by Chantal Le Noallec
What is the future for suppliers of organic produce now that the
big marketing and distribution companies are moving in? Will they
survive the shock? As a result of the "mad cow disease" panic,
organic farming is enjoying an unprecedented boom. Consumer demand
has never been so strong. The major retail stores are filling more
and more of their shelves with organic produce. Organic shops and
supermarkets - or at least claiming to be organic - are shooting up
everywhere. However, now that organic farming is coming into its
own and is also receiving subsidies, it has become a juicy market
niche ripe for exploitation. Faced with the encroachment of big
business, the organic lobby seems uncertain which way to turn.
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/1999/03/16bio.html
[** see BELOW.]
Translated by Ed Emery
...
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http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/1999/03/16bio.html
is:
ORGANIC FOOD: LIES AND PROFITS
Bio business is big business
What is the future for suppliers of organic produce now that the big
marketing and distribution companies are moving in? Will they survive the
shock? As a result of the "mad cow disease" panic, organic farming is
enjoying an unprecedented boom. Consumer demand has never been so strong.
The major retail stores are filling more and more of their shelves with
organic produce. Organic shops and supermarkets - or at least claiming to
be organic - are shooting up everywhere. However, now that organic farming
is coming into its own and is also receiving subsidies, it has become a
juicy market niche ripe for exploitation. Faced with the encroachment of
big business, the organic lobby seems uncertain which way to turn.
by CHANTAL LE NOALLEC, President of the Union des Consommateurs de la Bio
(UCBio)
Buying organic food is a statement of principle. It means supporting a
model of agriculture that is on the side of life, and resisting the
destruction of our environment. It means rejecting the madness of consumer
society, respecting animals, and looking after our bodies. It also means
taking responsibility for our choices in one of the few areas where it can
still be done. It is a form of freedom and of hope, and a way of fighting
for a better world.
In the spring of 1998 various "bioco-ops" (1) in Brittany were selling
yoghurt under the brand name of Grandeur Nature. However this brand label -
distributed by Le Gall dairies, with only their own name featuring on the
packaging - conceals the real source of the product: a company called Even,
which is a major player in the agribusiness sector in Brittany, and a
supplier of pesticides. Somebody had something to hide.
In another example, the Bio d'Armor yoghurts which sell in the Géant
hypermarkets are also sold under another label in organic food shops -
Grandeur Nature. The only difference is the packaging and the price. Then
there is the Triballat company, also from Brittany, which produces organic
milk products under the Vrai brand name for the large stores, and as Les
Fromagers de Tradition for the specialist market. But in the second case
Triballat's name does not feature! The same thing happens with Distrib-org,
which is distributing the same organic range under two brand names, Bjorg
and Evernat. Where is consumer choice if the basic information is so
misleading?
Selling these goods, sometimes produced or distributed by companies
whose primary interest is in making money, hardly fits with the ethos of
the organic movement. "Is this really the kind of development that we want
to encourage when we buy organic?" asks the editor of an organic gardening
magazine, Antoine Bosse-Platière (2).
The danger lying behind these smokescreen brands is that the organic
sector is about to become industrialised, because the agribusinesses are
beginning to take a big interest in it. Farmland is increasingly being
switched to organic, and an organic industry is developing based on
mono-cropping. More seriously, a number of companies are pressing for the
present specifications to be relaxed, under the pretext of speeding up
conversion and making it possible to supply more products at ever-lower
prices. So is this what the future holds? A downmarket and standardised
organic sector run at rock-bottom costs?
...
All this is now becoming the norm, to such an extent that the organic
and ecological sectors are now tolerating compromises which would have been
unthinkable only a short while ago. There are fewer and fewer independent
organic companies. In the longer term, the independence of organic farming
is seriously at risk. One solution might be "autarchic organic farming" (8)
that aims to return to its roots. Such farming would be local and
respectful of the environment; it would preserve small-scale operations and
bring life back to deserted rural communities; and it would put consumers
and producers onto a more equal footing.
Present tendencies in some parts of the organic sector are putting all
this at risk. As big multinational companies are eyeing the sector, it is
becoming urgent for organic consumers to stand up and make their feelings
known. Do we want be witnesses, or rather accomplices, in what is being
prepared for us, or will we opt for real organic choices and quality of
life? This is going to involve questioning the currently fashionable
behaviour patterns of "consumer activists" and "eco-consumers" (9), and
also analysing the notion of sustainable development within which people
are trying to confine organic agriculture.
These are choices about the kind of society that we want to live in.
They lie at the heart of a debate whose outcome will dictate our ways of
feeding ourselves, our health, and our ways of thinking both about
ourselves and about the universe.
Translated by Ed Emery
--------------
(1) The Biocoop federation was set up in 1987. It is a distribution
network for organic produce, representing around 180 biocoops whose aim is
to establish a new kind of relationship between producers and consumers.
(2) See the article by Antoine Bosse-Plantière, "Où acheter bio demain?",
* Les Quatre Saisons du Jardinage *, no. 110, Editions Terre Vivante,
May-June 1998.
(3) Fabien Perucca and Gérard Pouradier, * Des Poubelles dans nos
Assiettes *, Michel Lafon, Paris, 1996.
(4) Organic agriculture is a method of farming which uses no synthetic
chemicals and is controlled by certificating bodies recognised by the
French ministry of agriculture. Once an organic product has been certified
as conforming to government standards, it has the right to the label "AB
product" or "AB-based product" and, if required, can use the ministry's
green and white AB logo.
...
(8) See the editorial in * Nature & Progrès *, May-June 1998.
(9) See Raoul Vaneigem, Nous qui désirons sans fin, Le Cherche Midi, Paris
1996.
(10) See Bernard Charbonneau: une vie entière à dénoncer la grande
imposture, Erès, Ramonville-Saint-Agne, 1997. This collected volume is
dedicated to Bernard Charbonneau (1910-96) who throughout his life
denounced "the dictatorship of economics", "the lie of technoscience" and
"the mistakes of political ecology".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 1999 Le Monde diplomatique
______________________________________________________________
For more information on our English edition, please visit
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/
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sent on by David.
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David MacClement <davd@geocities.com> , or davd@tao.ca for secure mail
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