The Industrial Organic System: The Benefits Of The Organic Food System

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Many people in America do not make informed decisions about what they eat and are uninformed about where their food is coming from. There is an abundance of food in America, but people need to seriously reconsider their food choices and start making better choices about organic and genetically modified foods. Although people believe organic foods are a major benefit to our environment, the organic system needs to be reassessed and standards need to be changed in order to conserve the food quality and the environment. The Industrial Organic system contradicts its original views and must have standards changed. Much of the organic food system is industrial and standards for animal treatment and other practices have extremely low standards. The Many believe that organic farming must be local and transporting around the world defeats the purpose of organic farming. Michael Pollan, a well known food critic and the Author of The Omnivore 's Dilemma, asks “So is the industrial Organic food chain finally a contradiction in terms?”The size of the industrial organic industry has increased greatly in the past decades: “It 's no longer the image of a small organic farmer with four acres and a hog. This is mainstream now—this is an industry worth over $31.5 billion.” Src 3. The large organic companies have grown to be worth billions of dollars and because of this it would be hard to defeat them and change the standards. The industrial food system as a whole has decreased the amount of farming in America vastly. Pollan states that in the United States there is “One Farmer, 129 Eaters.” This means that for every farmer there is he/she is feeding 129 people across the United States. Organic farming and conventional farming produce the same yields with crops and animals.The large scale organic system could be beneficial if the standards are changed and made better for the environment. It is This is not true because the environment and the treatment of animals are overlooked by businesses to make their products cheaper and to maximize profits. Industrial organic animal facilities are only a few changes away from becoming the same as conventional farming. The difference between organic animal farming and conventional farming could be as little as a few windows put on a chicken den. There is still major overcrowding of animals in organic facilities. The animals are entitled to an outside grazing area under the organic system which at times can be very small. These grazing areas could only be a couple feet wide and have no other benefit to chickens other than having a few rays of sunlight. Chickens are usually raised in darkness to make it more convenient for the farmers to handle and feed the chickens. When these farms switch to organic farming, chickens do not even go in the grazing area because they are used to the darkness and they fear going out in the light. The organic companies try and twist the standards and make their facilities only slightly better than conventional farming. Organic farm workers also receive considerably lower pay than workers on a conventional farm because the prices to

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