Putting the “Oh Yeah” Back in Organics

Along with automobiles and Starbucks coffee, the organic industry is taking a hit from the sputtering economy. To drum up support, The Organic Institute recently launched its "Organic. It's Worth It" campaign targeted to families with young children at home, particularly new mothers, as the Organic Trade Association considers them the “primary gateway” to buying organic.

The internet-based marketing campaign is said to accommodate “a variety of topics of concern to families who might be open to choosing organic. Among these are organic’s connections to healthy kids, nutritious meals, food people trust, clean water and a healthy future.”

As a consumer, I’ve not considered organic a top purchase priority. If it’s cost-competitive with conventional products, I’m all for it as a value-added; sometimes it's worth a few extra pennies here and there. But even with the recent news that organic farming delivers healthier food, (...but exactly how much healthier?) I’m not entirely convinced that, for me, it’s enough of a bonus to pay historical organic prices in the current economy. If the product offers a quality or other advantage, I'm in. I buy organic, aseptic milk for packed lunches, but the aseptic package is driving my purchase, not the organic. If I see an organic frozen meal I crave, I'll buy it—unless the same exact conventional product is beckoning me with lower prices on the next shelf.

Maybe because I'm am "old" vs. new mom, but some of The Organic Institute’s propositions just aren’t resonating with me. Frankly, I don’t “trust” my food. If it was up to the food, I’m assuming those screaming vegetables brutally torn from the leafy arms of the mother plants would prefer to kill rather than be killed. Mostly, I trust that various people and companies—organic as well as nonorganic—who supply food do their darnedest to try not to poison their customers—with one or two recent, glaring exceptions. And I’ve yet to hear of a pathogen that decided it wasn’t going to infest a food merely because it was organic.

Maybe I'm just not the target, but I think the Organic Institute needs a more convincing argument backed by hard data. The organic industry may be taking a page out of Apple Computer's "get 'em hooked while they're young" strategy, but Apple hasn't taken over the computer market, and the most-cited reason is price. On the other hand, Apple has its die-hard proponents, as does organic. But I think the long-term goal is to grow share, not just mantain it. To do that, they need to convince the skeptics who don't see the value proposition. As for health and safety, I see logical arguments on both sides, but no volume of definitive data that pushes us to the side of the fence where the grass really is greener.

I think that organic is a great idea—clean living, clean earth, and all those really splendid effects. I’m all for it, especiallyin terms of the youngest consumers, and I hope the organic industry can thrive as a mainstream mainstay and not a luxury. As my vet once told me about canine supplements: It won’t hurt, and it might actually help.

  -Lynn A. Kuntz