Feds Move to Make ‘Climate Change’ Solutions Part of Organic Food Production

U. S. D. A. to Start Program to Support Local and Organic Farming … The organic food business in the United States reached $35 billion last year. The United States Department of Agriculture … will spend $52 million to support local and regional food systems like farmers’ markets and food hubs and to spur research on organic farming. The local food movement has been one of the fastest growing segments of the business, as consumers seek to know more about where, how and by whom their food is grown. – New York Times
Dominant Social Theme: Getting the federal government involved in the details of small-farm food distribution is a big step forward.
Free-Market Analysis: We’ve been following the “organic promotion” meme and this article from the New York Times posted at the end of September further buttresses the transition of natural food from a private initiative to a public one.
We haven’t labeled this the “organic meme” because we believe there are plenty of farmers and producers in the US and the West generally that are dedicated to natural and whole foods while rejecting pro forma USDA labeling guidelines. We’ll stick with “organic promotion.”
What we can see from this Times article, however, is that in the US anyway, fedgov continues to make inroads at every level of the local foods movement.
What is unfortunate is that once funding has been applied, the USDA and FDA are in a good position to further redefine the “organic” movement in ways that will make it more controllable and more appealing to entrenched agricultural interests.

This post was published at The Daily Bell on October 28, 2014.