Dear Next President,

The Organic Movement began in Europe in the 1920’s and it began to gather pace in the 1940’s in Britain. It was created in interest to help conserve soils and water, minimize people's exposure to pesticides, and promote biodiversity. It was also created to hopefully promote having food grown in ways that reduce pollution.

The movement caused many issues. Where mangrove trees once were is now occupied by organic rice, palm oil, and coconuts. Large amounts of rain forests were also razed for organic soybeans to grow. Some people even say that this movement isn’t helping the environment because of the amount of fossil fuels used to import all of the organic goods is further ruining the atmosphere. For these reasons the large-scale organic farmers may be causing greater environmental harm. Even though most issues have been negative one positive is that the movement has made organic foods cheaper and easier to get for people with lower incomes.

One of the biggest issues for the organic movement is the certification of the farms. Once or twice a year a third party certification company will inspect the farm. These inspections are pre-arranged and the farmers pay for their own farm to be inspected. They can also choose who inspects their farm. They could choose someone who is not very thorough and just looks through paperwork, or they could choose someone a little more thorough who inspects their field or fields. If they really believe that everything is perfect with their farm than they could choose someone who comes and has detailed interviews with the owner of the farm and their workers. Even though some people may see this movement as something positive and beneficial it could just be causing more harm to the environment than it actually ends up helping.

Sincerely,

Beth