Organic food comes to Wal-Mart

Today's Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story on Wal-Mart's entry into the organic food market. It details the history of the movement and the many reasons people decide to eat organic food. With organic going mainstream (it doesn't really get much more mainstream than Wal-Mart), the organic geeks are having to choose sides. Which poses the question: what is organic food? And if you eat it, why? Health? Support of small farms? Ethical treatment of animals? Decreasing global warming by eating foods that aren't shipped halfway across the world before ariving at the grocery store?

The WSJ says organic food has become much more industrialized since its introduction in the 1970's.

"More outlets sell organics every day--organic milk is now the fastest-growing sector in the beverage market--and grocery chains like Whole Foods are expanding so quickly that many suppliers have adopted the techniques of mass production, using trucked-in fertilizer and harvesting machines to keep up with demand.

"Still, old-school ethical eaters held on to the notion that, however indirectly, buying prewashed vacuum-packed organic 'baby' carrots shipped from California somehow helped to protect the kind of small traditional farmers who started the movement. But when Wal-Mart announced plans to introduce more than 1,000 new organic products in its stores this summer, denial was no longer possible. And that's when the organic compost hit the fan."