I have to admit to not knowing much about the politics of the organic industry but my better judgement cautions me, the current paradigm is geared for private corporations to commoditise everything, extract its value while leaving the liabilities to the rest of us, organics is no different!
What We Need to Know About the Corporate Takeover of the "Organic" Food Market
by Paul Glover
Multinational Ownership Impacts on Organic Standards List of Boycotted Brands Health Impacts Packaging Miscellany The Good News GreenStar Education Committee Most goods sold at GreenStar Co-op (Ithaca, New York) are chosen with a high degree of concern for the environmental and labor impacts of manufacture, and the health effects on shoppers.
GreenStar's Mission Statement emphasizes "exercising ecological responsibility and leadership in our choice of product line..." and "being sensitive to the working and living conditions of those whose labor produces the goods we sell..." But exploring GreenStar's aisles, one finds that several of our favorite products are now owned by global corporations which damage the environment, oppress labor, and endanger world peace.
The rest is here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/organic_corporate_overtake.cfm
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You might have a point in parts of the world that can not sustain local agriculture. But in coastal Australia, and I imagine large parts of the US (please tell me) the only benefit of non-organics is a greater range of foods to choose from. personally i think that is hugely over-rated benefit.
Panevino is spot on with "Local is the new Organic". We order a box or two of veggies once a week from a local organic farmer, and they simply put in the box whatever is seasonal on their farm and farms in their network. Opening the box is usually a bit of a surprise...and I find that quite inspiring in terms of making a meal.
It is a shock now walking into a large supermarket and seeing the pathetic out-of- season / energy consuming produce. The prices of fresh local stuff is very similar to imported/freighted goods....but the key is "local" and I agree that we are privileged in our geographical location (SE Queensland, Australia).
Engdahl's website is an interesting read. If you see the parts of the agricultural and GMO story not for general consumption (pun) you may well conclude differently. It's a great book that's well researched.
Seeds of Destruction
The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, 2007 ISBN 978-0-937147-2-2
This skillfully researched book focuses on how a small socio-political American elite seeks to establish control over the very basis of human survival: the provision of our daily bread. "Control the food and you control the people."
This is no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader inside the corridors of power, into the backrooms of the science labs, behind closed doors in the corporate boardrooms.
The author cogently reveals a diabolical World of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production. If the book often reads as a crime story, that should come as no surprise. For that is what it is.
Engdahl's carefully argued critique goes far beyond the familiar controversies surrounding the practice of genetic modification as a scientific technique. The book is an eye-opener, a must-read for all those committed to the causes of social justice and World peace.
What is so frightening about Engdahl's vision of the world is that it is so real. Although our civilization has been built on humanistic ideals, in this new age of "free markets", everything-- science, commerce, agriculture and even seeds-- have become weapons in the hands of a few global corporation barons and their political fellow travelers. To achieve world domination, they no longer rely on bayonet-wielding soldiers. All they need is to control food production. (Dr. Arpad Pusztai, biochemist, formerly of the Rowett Research Institute Institute, Scotland)
If you want to learn about the socio-political agenda --why biotech corporations insist on spreading GMO seeds around the World-- you should read this carefully researched book. You will learn how these corporations want to achieve control over all mankind, and why we must resist... (Marijan Jost, Professor of Genetics, Krizevci, Croatia)
The book reads like a murder mystery of an incredible dimension, in which four giant Anglo-American agribusiness conglomerates have no hesitation to use GMO to gain control over our very means of subsistence... (Anton Moser, Professor of Biotechnology, Graz, Austria).