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On Friday in the New York Times, there was an interesting article titled “Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing its Ideals”.

Given the number of emails I received about it, I wanted to address this piece and talk about what I see going forward.

The article points to the the ideal nature of organic – small farms, local farms, an environmental steward of the land, etc. – which has been lost in many parts of the organic industry.

While these are aspects of the organic food industry that everyone would like to hold onto, we live in a capitalist society and market forces have changed the dynamic of the industry, for better and for worse.

FOR BETTER

More people are eating organic food and as a result, they are becoming healthier and fewer pesticides are poisoning workers, the land, and our water supply.

With more people eating organic food, it has created thousands and thousands of new businesses and jobs.

What may have started out as a cottage industry is now a $27 billion force with absolutely no slowdown in sight.