Posted in reply to the post by flygal:
So I recently bought a bag of Organic Brown Sugar from Community market---Then I happened to look closely at the label. Sure, it is certified organic by all the "right" organizations here in the US. However, below that, it says Product of Paraguay.
So I had to do some further research and googled good ole' Woodstock Farms in CT and want to share with you what I found out.
Unfortunately, Your big mega healthfood stores like Whole Foods and many others appear to just sell "names" with warm fuzzy images to make us think our purchases are so humane and good for the planet.. but the real scoop is that these products get around most real certification laws.. pick out some products in your pantry that are organic (like Horizon Milk) and google to see just what you will find out. The advertising is very misleading...
Here is yet another piece of info. I found from my search. Is there ever honesty in any food labeled certified organic and where it comes from??
Truth in Packaging: Organic Edition
I've been reading Michal Pollan's latest,
The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is about the increasing alienation we Americans have from our food sources. Even ostensibly organic food is more and more a product of the industrial complex so much so that what we think of as organic is reduced to a mere shadow of its former ideal. To wit:
Brought this home from the supermarket last week.
Woodstock Farms Baby French Beans. Organic even. Cool, huh?
What's even cooler is this:
A little food philosophy for you: it reads "Picked at the height of ripeness, bringing them straight to market and
shortening the distance from the farm to you". I love this idea of shortening the distance between where the food is grown and my house. It makes me feel like there are still farmers out there who might be working the land their parents did. Like this Woodstock Farms. That we could also buy a bag of this from the market is very appealing come February, eh? But wait! Look at the back of the bag:
See all that warm and fuzzy organic certification? Everyone who hands out these little honour badges seems to have jumped at the chance to slap their seal of approval on these baby green beans. Makes you feel kind of superior, doesn't it?
But then you see this . . .
Product of China? Huh? Whatever happened to all that talk about "shortening the distance"? You mean, it's just marketing? You mean it's a lie? Right there on the package? I guess that concept of "distance" is some kind of metaphor. One that stands for something other than mega-gallons of petroleum and half and earth's worth of highway and ocean miles.
Man.
Read the fine print.
Suckah. As was the case with my "organic brown sugar" from the very same farm.. but no, it's a product of Paraguay.....suckah again!