For me personally, the most illuminating section of Michael Pollan’s game-changing book The Omnivore’s Dilemma addressed industrial organics. He was able to show the ways in which large-scale organic agriculture—though less harmful than conventional ag due to the dearth of chemicals and pesticides—can be just as unsustainable.
And that’s if what they’re doing is “organic” at all: As big corporations buy into organic as a marketing tool, it’s easy to see how there could be some fudging of the rules going on. This story in The Atlantic argues just that—and attacks the USDA for their underwhelming monitoring efforts.
This is yet another reason why local, sustainable food production (even when its not certified organic) has a leg-up.
