There are few terms that scream middleclass marketing in the
21st century like “Organic” and “Fairtrade”. The marketing technique
is simple. Target people who can afford to pay more for a product and reward
them with either the caring or smug knowledge that they are doing something “good”.
In this respect it might be argued that they are close cousins in the world of
retail, but the two subjects have some distinct differences.
Before we discuss these two topics, let’s get one thing
straight from the start. When you buy Organic or Fairtrade you are, more than
likely, buying from the same corporations who produce and sell their lower
priced equivalents. So, before you stand legs akimbo with your weekend Che
Guevara tee-shirt and declare that these two brands will be the fuel for your
anti-austerity/anti-capitalism march, don’t fall into the delusion. You are not
“sticking it to the man” in this particular shopping decision.
The Organic Food Movement has its origins with the 19th
century Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner. Steiner, like Harvey Kellogg, was just
one of many food faddists that exerted their cult-like influence over Victorian
society. Steiner believed in supernatural essentialism and promoted the concept
of a literal spiritual connection with earth. Much of the appeal of Organic
food comes from these pseudoscientific ideas and the appeal to nature logical
fallacy. We think of toxic chemicals poisoning nature and by extension not
doing us much good either. The term “chemical” gets ignorantly banded about as
if it were another name for poison. When tested against an exact non-organic
equivalent, a piece of Organic food has proven to have no more nutritional
value. There are various studies producing conflicting results, but what seems
to be the case is that freshness is more the determining factor in an item of
food than whether or not is produced in line with USDA Organic guidelines.
