When your college-age boy reminds you that your superstore foods are ‘dead’ and that you are simply supporting government-subsidized monoculture farming practices, what do you do? Is the answer ‘natural and organic food’…but what does this mean, and what would you get if you convert to it? When does a difference matter? Who has not been tickled in a shopping visit when you read one packet where ‘free range chickens’ have been ‘sustainably farmed’, while the other packet simply shows the price and pound details for what must be the ‘alternative chicken’ produced by commercial farming and mass distribution means? How does one select? Is another ‘chicken’ than the other? Does the carton showing ecstatic cows grazing on lush pasture settings with the words ‘ organic food’ make you stop, think and buy? And what about the buyer’s quandary when one type of organic milk differentiates itself from rival organic milks as the milk is ultrapasteurized…and in the same food case another organic ‘raw’ milk claims that it’s better for you, fresher as it has not undergone any pasteurization? What’s Meant By Natural And Organic Food? For one, natural and organic food actually now means huge business, with producer networks extending from Argentina to Calgary to California and beyond, with several thousand stores, and a market valuation reckoned at $11 bn.. No other food segment grows sales as swiftly as organic food. * The Packing Account . The story-line pictured on organic food packing conjures youth bed time stories, where peacefully bovine animals pass their lives away on wonderful farm pastoral settings.

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