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HISTORY OF THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT
We’re not exactly sure just when the organic movement started, since that would depend, in part, on how you define it. Certainly, in the early stages, the word organic was not part of this movement. The word organic would not be introduced until around 1941 by a British chemist, Sir Albert Howard. But by then, the movement was decades old and had more than one front. There were those who promoted the scientific reasons for natural farming; those who had more spiritual reasons to care for the land; small farmers who were being left out of big business; those with strong social attitudes who wanted to help the “little guys” get a fair share of the profits; and consumers, who eventually had the greatest numbers and created the real change. But even before the movement was noticed, there were those few who made the observations that growing food in the most natural soils produced better food and healthier people.
In the 1830s, German chemist Justus von Liebig was formulating his agricultural biochemistry theories, which he published in the 1840s, discussing how plants utilize nitrogen in the soil along with various minerals. Natural fertilizers, he theorized—including manure from healthy animals—would provide these vital nutrients. This was the beginning of modern farming, and the movement soon branched into two: one that became big business farming, with newly developing chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the other that became the organic movement.
Sir Albert Howard may be one of the earliest “organic” farmers—he was from a British farming family but learned about natural soil production and organic gardening in India in 1905. The influence of Howard’s writings—he called the introduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides a great threat to the future of human health—created a clear separation of the organic movement and conventional farming. His writing spread throughout Europe and eventually to America.
By the early 1900s, American food manufacturers, as an integral part of the “modern farming” movement, began mass-producing the first packaged foods. This coincided with a major change from the farmers’ market with its many single-food stands to one store that would sell all types of food—a “super market”—complete with the latest technology of packaged foods. Small groups of concerned citizens immediately and openly protested against the mass packaging of food. Some, including Dr. Royal Lee, began growing high-quality food with natural composting, and in 1929, Dr. Lee began manufacturing the first dietary supplements in America using these foods.
By the 1930s, with the influence of Howard’s writings and others in America, the organic movement was organized, albeit small. One person who jumped on board was an engineer named Jerome Irving Rodale. He not only bought a farm and began gardening organically, but started publishing a magazine on organic methods in the 1940s—and none other than Sir Albert Howard contributed articles. Rodale also started a printing business that went on to publish books—a business that thrives today as a multi-million-dollar corporation.
I was introduced to Rodale’s books on organic gardening in the 1960s and soon after planted my first organic garden. As a student working part-time in a health-food store, and having studied basic chemistry, I realized almost all the vitamins on the shelves were synthetic, not natural as they claimed. Seeing a growing market in the young organic industry, the pharmaceutical companies had quietly jumped on board by producing virtually all the synthetic vitamins for the health food industry, a problem that continues today.
After studying organic gardening and natural health, and many different health-care philosophies, I decided to go back to college, become a doctor, and focus on helping people get healthy.
Into the 1970s and ’80s, the organic movement continued to hold its social, fair trade, and health-oriented subgroups. Even up to the time when the USDA decided to take charge of the movement by creating a National Organic Program (NOP) in 1990 that would define organic and certify growers, manufacturers and others involved in the organic movement, there continued to be different philosophies associated with organics.
The NOP would spend the next decade gathering information from the organic movement to create standards, rules, regulations, and a system to certify all those it would allow into the organic movement—often for a hefty price—under the guise that the USDA needed to control the process. The result was the “certified organic” regulations, released in 2002, complete with a seal of authenticity. They established three levels of organic: 100 percent, 95 percent, which allowed 5 percent non-organic material, and 70 percent organic.
There was one big problem with the process: During this decade big business lobbied heavily for regulations that would make it easier and cheaper to jump on the “certified organic” bandwagon. Not only that, the large manufacturers of processed foods, the sugar industry, large food chains, and a variety of other lobbyists made sure they were part of the process too. The result was a massive growth of organic junk food that coincided with the NOP’s “organic” launch in 2002.
Just before the NOP became law, I created, in 1999, the first line of certified organic dietary supplements made from real food. I followed the developments of the USDA’s certified organic program and prepared my formulas based on what I thought would be the requirements for organic certification. While these products were launched, it did not take long for the major players in the industry to keep them from taking hold in a marketplace run by a few large conglomerates.
The Organic Trade Association (OTA) evolved from part of the movement that was the political tail. Its goal was to help large companies involved in certified organic activities work with other large companies and the NOP. Unfortunately, they were a political organization not oriented to health. I attended their first national trade show, and was shocked at the number of organic junk food companies represented—the first day I watched overweight people sample organic cookies made from organic white flour and organic white sugar, eat processed organic corn chips, drink organic beer, and even smoke organic cigarettes. This was the modern health-food industry! The next day was even worse.
There were a number of speakers discussing the value of organic certification during the next day’s events. A keynote speaker was J. I. Rodale’s granddaughter, who was a main player in the Rodale publishing empire. She was so excited to see the organic movement get this far and be so “successful.” After her talk, she took questions. I asked, “Are you concerned that the organic industry is made up of so much junk food that it adversely affects people’s health?” Her answer was an emphatic “No.” She said that people can make their own choices about what to eat.
Marie Rodale’s grandfather, J. I., promoted the relationship between organic farming and optimal health and helped launch the organic movement. But now, companies making organic junk food have become the biggest advertising revenue for the modern Rodale publishing empire. In joining with big business and the USDA, the small farmers and start-up companies making healthy foods were left out.
Meanwhile, consumers jumped in too. They were the ones eating all the organic junk food. This was evident just by looking—at the owners, employees, and others working in the “health food” industry, including those in the stores. Go into Whole Foods, for example, and you’ll see the shelves full of organic junk. And a large part of the store is the bakery section—complete with white flour and sugar cakes, cookies, and pies.
My level of disappointment in the organic movement has reached a high, while my enthusiasm had bottomed. My first article after returning home from the OTA show, “Organic Junk,” brought praise by a few but anger from industry people. Making money, it seemed, was the goal of certified organics, even if it contributed to the explosion of obesity not only in adults but now also in young children. Along the way, the large companies, including manufacturers and grocery stores, and the “new” health food chains, successfully pushed for the NOP regulations to be diluted—many unhealthy foods, food additives, and other ingredients would now be allowed in organic foods. I began writing and lecturing more on the dangers of organic junk food and “beyond organic”—those small farmers, companies, and consumers left out of the original organic movement who were still there hoping for healthy changes. The organic movement had left them behind. And many legitimate farmers, manufacturers, and food companies that were too small to pay the thousands of dollars to be part of the USDA’s organic movement were actually creating healthier food.
Now, in 2010, I’m very disillusioned with the government-sponsored organic programs. And because the USDA took the word “organic” for itself, products or companies would not be allowed to use the word “organic” unless it was certified by the USDA. In addition, small farms, legitimate companies producing healthy foods, and others involved in the organic movement are even being harassed by federal and local authorities because they have not embraced the movement. The result is that a small but growing movement continues, made up of consumers and health-care professionals like myself, seeking the best food from good and honest people all working together for a healthier planet.