As the popularity of organic food grows, it is becoming more and more difficult for food companies to keep up with demand. Companies ranging from Wal-Mart to General Mills are now marketing organic food.
While the involvement of large corporations has turned organic food into a $14-billion business, these organizations are frequently choosing to eliminate the ethos that many feel is essential to organic food as they struggle to find a consistent, large-scale supply of high-quality organic ingredients.
To be certified as organic by the U.S. Agriculture Department, food must be free of most pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics, genetic modification, and irradiation. But many argue that true organic food also entails respect for locally produced food, respect for livestock and employees, and environmentally sustainable practices.
The Organic Integrity Project last spring released a high-profile report card calling 11 producers ethically challenged, including Horizon Organic Dairy and Aurora Organic Dairy, both of which operate giant corporate feedlots and feed their cattle grains, rather than letting them graze on grass at pasture for all of their food.
There is also now "organic" food that is imported from such countries
as China, Sierra Leone,
and Brazil,
where standards, wages, and conditions are difficult to monitor and enforce.