They Just Don’t Get It
Most critics of organic and natural agriculture fail to understand it at all. Most of them I know think that health and food safety are the only reasons people buy organic food. They figure that if they can prove, with cold hard science, that industrial food is “just as safe” they will win the hearts of organic food buyers. Now anyone with an ounce of common sense knows its not healthy to soak food with poison, feed cattle other cows or invade plant cells with bacteria and change their genetic makeup. Our critics will tell you otherwise, I’ve been told by conventional dairymen that I can’t prove my milk is any different than theirs. Why milk is milk they tell you. I know mines better and different, but even if I can’t “prove it” there are other reasons why people buy organics. Social justice is one. Most organic consumers I talk to want to know if I’m making enough money. Wow, can you believe that! They are conserned that the people who grow their food are fairly compensated. They want to know about my kids. They want family farms to have a chance to survive. They want to know about the wildlife we have. They want to know that our animals are being treated fairly. Sure organic food buyers are concerned about getting healthy food, but they are conserned with alot of other things as well. They are not just “stupid consumers” that have been “duped into thinking conventional food is bad”. I find the reaction of conventional agriculture to be histerical. The whole responce to the people they are trying to woo, is to call them idiots. They cry that our claims and advertising is “Deceptive”. This from the same people who run “happy cow” ads with cows eating grass when they know full well most of the cattle in state they are advertising about live on dry lots their whole lives. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. At the end of the day, what really cracks me up the most, is the more they try..the more they smear…they only wind up helping us even more.