In the case of Wal-Mart, Kellogg, and other companies that have introduced organic versions of processed foods, organic often seems more like a marketing technique, not a seal of health.
"No matter how carefully I avoided using the word 'organic' when I spoke to groups of food enthusiasts about how to eat better, someone in the audience would inevitably ask, "What if I can't afford to buy organic food?" It seems to have become the magic cure-all, synonymous with eating well, healthfully, sanely, even ethically," he complains (Bittman 2009). Organic food has become synynonmous with health and a high price, and so health and high prices have become interrelated in the public's mind. Rather than enhance the public's desire to purchase healthy food, not being able to afford organic produce has become kind of an excuse -- 'I can't afford to buy organic, so why bother.'
Organic food is not inherently 'bad' -- but nor is it inherently, automatically good. "The truth is that most Americans eat so badly -- we get 7% of our calories from soft drinks, more than we do from vegetables; the top food group by caloric intake is 'sweets'; and one-third of nation's adults are now obese -- that the organic question is a secondary one....
it's not unimportant, but it's not the primary issue in the way Americans eat," says Bittman (Bittman 2009). Calorie and energy balance is more important in the question of what is making Americans obese than whether the food individuals are eating is organic. Americans are eating too much, and eating too much processed food and sugar. Focusing on whether an apple is organic is a side issue. Americans each consume an average of nearly two pounds a day of animal products, and were we to switch to two pounds of organic, grass-fed beef; it is hard to believe that we would be any healthier, given such levels of overconsumption (Bittman 2009).
So eat unprocessed food -- but your spinach and potatoes don't have to be bought at Whole Foods, or be unnecessarily costly. These are the personal choices all of us should be making, not obsessing about an organic label. Additionally, for personal and organizational advocates of improving the American diet, shifting the stress from organic food to real food is important. People should not feel as if eating better requires them to 'break their banks.' Eating healthfully and in an environmentally sustainable way requires relying upon good common sense, not looking for a government seal.
