As people become more concerned about health and the
environment, more and more have turned to ‘organic food’ as a choice. The idea
of food grown and raised locally in eco-friendly ways with no pesticides or
growth hormones is appealing to people who are health and environmentally
conscious.
Based on statistics, the organic idea has caught on and the organic food market
has grown from a niche market to the mainstream market, with an annual growth of
20 per cent each year. Because of the rapid growth in demand and potential for
profit, major supermarket chains and factory farms have jumped in.
One can find organic food in supermarkets from suppliers and producers all over the world, some travelling thousands of miles before reaching the hands of a purchaser. What happened? Has the popularity of ‘organic’ becomes a victim of its own success?
The term ‘organic’ has been appropriated to sell anything. People have
associated ‘organic’ with healthy. Has this become an automatic association?
When there are organic chips and cookies, when organic food has to be
transported half way around the world, we need to ask ourselves what we are
achieve by choosing organic.
If we are health conscious, for ourselves and our environment, let us not reduce
the solution to one dimension and let us not limit health only to the physical
body. There are other dimensions within that also call for attention, such as
emotional health, mental health and spiritual health.
To desire health but neglect these other dimensions would be like building a house without a foundation, or planting a tree without giving it room to grow its roots.
