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I found this chapter especially interesting, because my family does shop at Whole Foods pretty often. It is scary how similar the conventional industrial process is to the organic food process which has become indutrialized. The biggest differences are that the animals are fed organic corn and soy feed while the plants are sprayed with pesticides that are derived from plants. It was shocking to hear that most of the organic companies became organic to develop an economic niche as opposed to coming from small-farm ideals. I am from the East Bay in northern California in a town very near to Berkeley so the idea of the "greening" of the counterculture and learning about the hippies in people's park was very interesting. The USDA is very lineant in what they call "healthy" and "organic". This is evident in the fact that they permit some food additives and synthetic chemicals in organic food. Another sad fact that stood out in my mind was the inefficiency of the food industry. An example is the organic salad. They said that to grow, chill, wash, package and tranport a box of organic salad take 57 claories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food. Finally, a theme that striked me was the danger of the oversimplification of nature.
Peace,
Marisa