Pass the organic twinkies, ma
Wal-Mart's announcement that it is going to become a major supplier of "organic" food is a fascinating development. The reason according to a New York Times story ("Wal-Mart Eyes Organic Foods", 5/12/06) is that Wal-Mart is trying to brush up its image to appeal to "urban and other upscale consumers." By entering that market, Wal-Mart the #1 supermarket company, will instantly become the #1 organic food buyer and reseller. It will also change the concept of organic from elitist to everyday.
Clearly, Wal-Mart's move will make for a boom in the organics industry and will introduce organic foods to many shoppers who have never been to Whole Foods Market or a health-food store. Thta sounds like a good idea.
But it's not the local farmer or the small, idealistic food packager that are likely to be the beneficiary of Wal-Mart. It's the big food producers like Kraft and Kellogg that already supply much of the regular, junky food sold by Wal-Mart. After all, this is another case of the big serving the big: only a megacorporation can deliver massive quantities at low prices to Wal-Mart distribution centers. Already the organic produce farming sector is highly concentrated.
Moreover, the article points out that there is already a heavy demand for organic foods and relatively a shortage of them grown in the US. As one critic in the Times article says. "They're going to end up outsourcing from overseas and places like China… where you've got very dubious organic standards and labor conditions that are contrary to what any organic consumer would consider equitable." Already 10 percent of organic food is imported.
Food author Michael Pollen ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") is quoted on the seattlepi.com website as saying in an interview today that:
Food will become like every other commodity, like shoes and CDs and electronics, you know? It will be produced where it can be produced most cheaply and sold wherever it can be sold most dearly. When that happens to food, you have to wonder how organic is it, when you're shipping the food halfway around the world?
Pollen also originated the "organic Twinkie" quip.
In addition, the whole concept of organic is likely to be bent and extended. Companies like Kraft (Boca Burger), General Mills (Cascadian Farms), and Dean Foods (Horizon) have already got into the market, and now are prepared to expand. (The article cites organic Rice Krispies and organic Macaroni & Cheese among other products.) Basically, we imagine that these products will use some technically organic elements, but the substitution of organic cane sugar for regular old sugar is unlikely to make them more healthy. Kellogg, for example, is going to sell organic "Frosted-Mini Wheats." As one expert quoted in the Times article is quoted as saying: "It's a ploy to be able to charge more for junk food."
After all, the big food processor have already started to use their governmental clout to redefine "organic:" in ways that water down the concept to be far from what it was originally intended to be.
Organic, like the "low-carb" and "low-fat" food crazes before them, is more of a marketing gimmick rather than a real ethical/health choice. Wal-Mart's entrance is going to industrialize the organic segment ever more. The gravitational pull of a Wal-Mart is overwhelming and restructures every business it is in. (A parallel case is McDonald's earth-shaking entry into the apple industry.) But industrialization would seem to be the opposite of organic as originally conceived.
