Go Greed for Earth Day

"Then I saw the list of companies participating in the Organic Trade Association and I began to suspect that this warm and fuzzy concern for our health might be just another hypocritical public relations campaign.

For example, over 3,500 grocery stores are participating in this Go Organic event… that’s twenty-nine chains, by the way. I reflected that if these companies were so concerned with America’s health, they should simply lower the prices of organic food to enable everyone to afford it. Most purchasers of organic products are price-insensitive; that is to say, they will purchase the product without regard to its price. Many of our least healthy Americans, however, are in the working class and often don’t have health insurance either. These people are price sensitive; that is to say, they purchase less expensive foods because their budget for food is smaller. They cannot easily afford organic produce or meat. Aren’t their children’s metabolisms important too?

So the price of organic food is an issue. Not that grocers earn much money from actually selling food! The big money is in the listing fees that manufacturers must pay to the grocers in order to have the right to put product on the shelves. The smaller organic producer or manufacturer often cannot afford these listing fees."

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