ORGANIC for Everyone! Making Organic More Accessible
By Steven Hoffman and Kat Schuett
“Organic food should not be seen as a luxury. It’s not a 48-inch
flat-screen television that you splurge on. It is something that is
integral to the health of each of us and the planet. We need to all
be working toward a food system where organic is available to
everyone no matter what income or geography.”
—Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap
No one would argue with the fact that everyone deserves access to food that is not exposed to toxic chemicals linked to cancer and myriad other maladies. Most of those in the organic industry joined this movement to create a healthier world—not just for those who have a Whole Foods Market around the corner
from their home—but a better world for all.
While we have made tremendous progress in the past few decades, we still have
many barriers to cross in order to say that organic is truly accessible to all. Today,
many still believe organic is financially out of their reach. Research from the Hartman
Group found that when consumers were asked why they didn’t buy more organic,
the reason most often cited (71 percent of the time) was that organic was too
expensive.
Others simply don’t have access to organic—especially those in inner city or rural
areas. The USDA estimates that currently 30 million people in the United States live
in “food deserts,” areas where healthy food is difficult to obtain, or “food swamps,”
urban areas with no access to fresh foods but flooded with unhealthy fast food instead. Additionally, most children who eat school lunches are given no access to organic during a time when toxins in food can affect their development the most.
