Summary: The Omnivore's Dilemma Chapter 8-9

In these two chapters, the author talks about the organic food industry in the United States. As a principal alternative to the industrial food chain which is now prevail in the US, the organic food chain emphasis that “nature rather than the machine should supply the proper model for agriculture” (Pollan 131). The idea of “organic” is best exemplified by pastoral farms that raise diversified perennial species in a traditional way and target solely at the local market. However, most of the “organic food” people consume today is produced from the so-called “industrial organic” farms which, according to the author, belong firmly to the industrial food chain rather than the ideal organic food chain. The author gives three main reasons for the argument. First, the reality of “organic food” chain is largely inaccurately reported. For example, many literary critics focus their reports on some small and non-representative organic farms which follow the “organic ideal”, while making the public believe such is the reality of all the farms producing organic food. Second, the government (e.g. the USDA) sets weak standards on the definition of “organic”. For example, the USDA rules that dairy cows must have “access to pasture”, but such a standard is so vague that many organic farms only keep a tiny and nominal pasture in order to label their products as organic. Third, the organic food industry is dominated by large companies which are more cost-efficient than small farms. The reason is that large companies operate in industrialized ways such as raising large numbers of livestock or poultry in confined places, just as industrial food producers do. They label their product as organic as long as they meet the vague standards set up by the USDA, but such “industrial organic” food does not resemble what “organic” originally means.
Questions to consider:
1. Who is ultimately responsible for the degradation of the organic food chain? (Is it the large companies which have to industrialize their business facing the low demand for expensive “real organic food”? Is it the government which makes vague definition of “organic”? Or is it the consumers who are unwilling to pay higher price for the “real organic food”, which indirectly forced the large companies to industrialize their business?)
2. Though the industrialized organic food chain has deviated from the original idea of “organic”, it nevertheless provides a way to serve foods with higher quality than industry-produced-food to more people at lower prices than those produced by small farms. Should we at least give the large companies credit for that?