Stores & Markets

The New York Times reports today that despite the relatively relaxed pace at which the price of organic food has risen in comparison to other produce and processed food in the past few months, organics are about to see dramatic price increases across the board. With the cost of organic feeds for meat and dairy, and the decreased incentive for farmers to go organic due to higher prices for non-organic foods, there's a good chance that the cost of many of your favorite organics will go up by as much as 20 percent in the very near future.

With food prices rising across the board due to higher fuel costs and a spike in the commodities markets, you might think that the organics boom would be the first suffer — especially in the midst of a recession. The logic goes that since wallets are tightening across the country, consumers will turn to cheaper meat and produce, eschewing concerns about pesticides, growth hormones and sustainability issues. But could the long term benefits of a changing food economy actually outweigh the negatives?

One of the most sensible proposals for neutralizing the confusion that greenwashing has brought to green shopping, is a labeling system that would allow consumers to actually compare products in the same way that dieters might compare fat and calorie contents. It's highly unlikely that such a system will be implemented at the federal level in the United States, but some businesses have been experimenting with voluntary carbon labeling systems that could one day become the standard by which we measure the footprints of the products we buy.

Monsanto is in the process of introducing legislation in states throughout the country that would bar dairies from advertising their products as "rBST-free" or "rBGH-free." The "r" stands for "recombined," meaning that levels BGH and BST— two naturally occurring bovine growth hormones — have been unnaturally elevated to increase the amount of milk that the cows produce.

Local Harvest offers a comprehensive database of local farms, markets, community supported agriculture and local supplied restaurants, as well as an internet store that allows small farmers to sell goods like soap, maple syrup, preserves and dried fruits to a national market.