Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew [Hardcover]

After reading this book, I bought copies for everyone in my family. If you eat, you should read it. ORGANIC, INC., is a fascinating account of the rise of the organic food movement. Fromartz, a Washington D.C. based journalist, apparently loves good food almost as much as a good story. His experience as a consumer shopping at Whole Foods and at local farmer's markets made him question why he was seeking out and buying organic produce, even when it cost him more. Was it just the chemical free aspect or was he also buying into an alternative culture of health and "moral hedonism"? Who were the organic farmers who fed him and his family? What was in store for them as the growth of a small farm ideal clashed with the forces of the food industry? Fromartz hit the road to find answers. Criss-crossing the country to visit organic farmers and producers, he managed to tap into a rich vein of American culture and to meet some truly amazing people. Chapters on technical and legal issues, and the historical background of the organic movement, are mixed with chapters that vividly portray the farmers and their experiences. Fromartz is a veteran business writer and the book is thoroughly researched and well written. Reading the somewhat demanding technical chapters, I kept mumbling "unbelievable!" to myself. Who knew that conventional strawberries were grown by fumigating the soil with a neurotoxin-- methyl bromide gas--with field workers wearing full chemical warfare body suits? For my money, however, it's Fromartz's personal asides and his evocative rendering of the farmers lives as they go about their work that make this book come alive. These stories put all the information in the book in a context of human struggle in pursuit of an ideal against overwhelming odds, which makes them unavoidably dramatic and often moving. Fromartz is too good a journalist to come off as an advocate. This is a fair assessment of the many issues and conflicts within the organic movement. But having read this book, I have renewed respect for the people who grow the organic food I choose to eat. I will say a small prayer of thanks before I bite into that next pesticide free strawberry. It's come at a considerable price, one not paid by me.

"Organic Inc" by Samuel Fromartz offers a good introduction to the natural food movement. Written primarily for a popular audience, the book combines research with short histories, case studies and profiles of prominent personalities and companies that have shaped the industry. Although the author's frequent interjections about his own personal experiences and infatuations with organics becomes somewhat annoying, overall the book succeeds in granting insight into the organic movement, its foundational ideals and the possibilities for the future.

Mr. Fromartz provides a brief history of organic farming as an alternative to a deeply flawed agro-industrial production system. We learn that organic methods were developed for ideologically diverse reasons but tends to produce nutritionally superior foods when compared with conventional farming practices. Although yields are usually smaller, the author discusses how organic strawberry farms in California are an example of how organics can outperform when allowing for decreases in energy and fertilizer input.

Mr. Fromartz profiles some of the small organic farmers whose deference to health, environment and community were shaped by the 1960s counterculture. A small but vital network of farmers, distributors and retailers supported a fledgling movement that defined itself by remaining outside the conventional food system. The author describes how such farmers often devised creative marketing strategies by catering to specialty restaurants or selling their produce directly to the public at farmer's markets. As health and safety concerns about pesticides and rBGH growth hormones caught the public's attention, organic farming has become more widespread, emerging as an increasingly important survival strategy for more and more beleagured family farmers.

Mr. Fromartz traces the rise in popularity of pre-packaged salads and refrigerated soy milk to discuss how mass market success has created divisions within the organic community. The development of large-scale organic enterprises has intensified competition and shut down smaller, less efficient producers. Regulation has become a contentious issue, with small farmers seeking to hold large farmers accountable to maintaining high standards. As supermarkets such as Safeway and Wal-Mart have begun to add organic sections to their stores, issues of local production, fair wages and sustainability are heightened. Yet, the author is upbeat in his assessment that small farmers can continue to find their niche by satisfying the needs of the more sophisticated organic consumer.

I recommend this highly readable and informative book to everyone.

Can big agribusiness and local organic farming co-exist and thrive? Samuel Fromartz' new book, Organic, Inc., is a fascinating journey through American agricultural movements, starting around the turn of the century, when farming was still a small-town venture and tracing its development into agribusinesses whose products are now found on most American tables - and the movement into locally grown, organic foods, which represents not so much a return to the past as a return to wholeness and healthy living.

The problem seems to be that the organic movement itself is being challenged by the very agribusinesses it once eschewed. There are really few ways to farm sustainably (which will in most cases mean organically and without genetically modified foods or chemicals) AND use the systems that have come to mean "factory farms" - livestock confined for their entire lifetimes in areas so small they cannot turn around or lie down (chickens, for instance, and pigs), never mind see the sunshine or walk around and enjoy fresh air, eating what they would eat if humans were not around.

Agrisystems, as they exist today, are basically unhealthy - and unsustainable. But they are profitable, and make it easy for "food" (if you want to call it that) to arrive at your table packaged neatly and processed to death. Rare are the children being raised today who knows what "food" looks like in its natural state. Do they know what a carrot or beet looks like, while it's growing in the ground? Do they know that the hamburger they eat comes from a being that has a face and makes sounds, and may (depending on your viewpoint) be sentient?

Being removed from the source and sight and smells and knowledge of how your food comes to you - how it was grown, and what has happened to it all along the way - makes for some dangerous possibilities. We cannot know (or control very well, despite so-called legal safeguards meant to protect us) where our food has been, before it reaches our table, unless we have grown it ourselves (which is not easy or possible for most people) or have bought it from someone in our community whose farming practices we know - and could actually go there and see.

Fromartz comes from a reporting background, and knows how to dig out factoids that will leave you breathless for the sheer scope of what has happened to our food and our food production systems. It should leave you with both concern and hope, at the end.

Organic, Inc. Is not exactly the "story of food" but it truly is the tale of two different visions for how food is produced and made available to consumers. One (local biodynamic farming) is sustainable; the other (multinational, corporate agribusiness) is not.

Fromartz carefully traces how we got where we are, without suggesting where we will go in the future. However, his bias for a sustainable natural foods future is clear - and it's one I share. If you care about what you eat, how it got here, and whether you will be able to find more like it tomorrow, you should read this book, think about what it means, and DO something about what you believe is the best course of action for a world where what we eat determines how healthy we and our future generations will be.

Yours for extraordinary dining -- for everyone,

Nancy Boyd

www.find-great-organic-gourmet-foods.com

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 16 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars