The Truth  About Organic  Farming (1)
About Organic Farming
         An interview with Gene Kahn, creator of one of the first American organic food companies and current General Mills VP of sustainable development

Q: It's possible now to live an almost entirely "organic" life, even shopping at a grocery store  store. Consumers have the impression we know how to create food organically. What are we missing?
A: Organic is an infant industry. The commercialization of organic is a relatively recent phenomenon, so the support network - the distribution, the manufacturing, the research-is just gearing up right now. There's a lot of theoretical knowledge about organic, a lot of conceptual knowledge, but very little technical knowledge outside of the innovative farmers who really made this whole thing happen. If we're going to convert all the food to organic, we have a lot of people we need to teach. While there are certain universities that are involved in this, it's a very rudimentary effort. Then there's the institutional side-all of the support payments that go to certain types of farming, and crop insurance payments, a whole set of policies, governmental programs, institutional programs-that would need to change.

Q: Is there any tension between the original organic values you grew up with and large multinational companies putting the word "organic" on their products?
A: Yes, there's a lot of tension, and there are a lot of critics of that. But I have no personal tension. A lot of people wanted to maintain that original, small model. But to imagine that we were going to change U.S. agriculture and keep it all in the hands of market gardeners, instead of production scale farmers, is not only a fatuous dream, it's an undesirable perspective from my view. While success certainly makes it harder for smaller producers, there are plenty of opportunities for all.

Vocabulary Focus
commercialization (n)--- the act of organizing something to make a profit
theoretical (adj)--- based on the ideas that relate to a subject, not the practical uses of that subject
rudimentary (adj)--- basic
fatuous (adj)--- stupid, not correct or not carefully thought about

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