In the 1800's, the American Dietary Reformer, Dr. Graham, talked to many companies about going organic. It was considered for a while, but all changed. In 1940, J.I. Rodale started a magazine called Organic farming and Gardening, trying to change the use of chemicals, but that didn't happen. Between 1940 and 1960 people tried to convince others to eat organic, but it didn't kick in.
In the 1960's, the idea of eating organic finally started catching on. Many people at that time "dropped out" of their society to join local farms and gardens. In 1962, a writer named Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring. That book was about the danger of chemicals like DDT. In the 1970's, farmers figured out that the fertilizers and chemicals they used were bad for the body and environment. After knowing that, people started talking about cleaning up the planet. Everybody worked hard cleaning up rivers and picking up trash. On April 22, 1970 the first Earth Day was held. After that day, the idea of eating whole grain bread and brown rice was actually considered, put into peoples mouth for one of the first times! ( when my mom was younger she ate wonder bread and other products that were highly refined.) After that, organic meant a little more than just a farming method. It meant living in peace and being "one" with nature.
Everybody knows Whole Foods. In 1980, it was just a little store in Texas. Now look at it! There are over 300 stores in the country. Take a walk through those aisles: "100% organic", "100% organic", "No added sweetenings", "Squeezed from the best lemons in California". Woo! That's a pretty perfect market!
Now I'm going to tell you a little about how organic got "Out of control". I'm going to go into the present.
A man named Michael Pollan came up with a little phrase, a name for a kind of farming. The phrase was "industrial organic". Even Whole Foods sells industrial organic, What is it? Well, lets say there is a farm with cows. Those cows are fed all organic grass. Then they slaughter the cow, in an industrial slaughter house. Then they bring the meat to a factory to be packed! Some system that is. There are two parts to that system. The organic part is what they feed the cows. The industrial part is the slaughter house and the packaging. I think that system is very bad. Not only for us and the cows, but for the environment. Some organic farm's use this method and find it cheaper. Others use the basic, hippie way of farming so they can feed us hippies!
FYI, local organic is going to be a trend. Soon that's all I'm gonna buy. What about you?