I’ve always wondered if the legal definition of “organic” should be tightened a bit. I have seen stuff on the shelves listed as such that really seems questionable: mostly by the giants of food processing like General Foods used to be. (Their history for the past 10 years seems a bit vague according to Wiki: they say it’s just a “brand name” but what happened to them isn’t covered. My guess: just renamed or more likely swallowed up by even bigger fish. Yikes!) I remember my father ranting on this subject when it came to “all natural.”

Conventional food is cheap probably for the same reasons you can buy useless stuff at Wally world: cheap labor, overseas sourcing from questionable countries: questionable labor, short cuts that make the goods inferior like in quality. Use the widest definitions of all I just mentioned: like crowded chickens, unsanitary conditions for process being similar to prison labor and hideous working conditions/pay (if any) and I think most will understand it’s the same problem.

And like my most recent column it’s a “get whatever we want no matter what we have to do to get it” problem. Lead in children’s toys? Hey, stop whining! At least you have the joy of that playing with Chinese toy before you die.