Organic bananas won’t save lives

Owner of one of the largest food retailers in Norway, Trond Lykke says organic food is selfish because it requires more land area and drives up retail prices at the cost of poor farmers in developing countries, according to Norwegian Dagsavisen. Other Norwegian retailers agree with him and say consumers should not get caught up in food fads and hysteria.

The organic food movement in the country does not appreciate such heresy. Some claim that the inefficiency of organic food production does not influence the price on the world market. One researcher even goes as far as to say that organic food production will increase access to food and food security in poor developing countries.

Unlike the reporter who cited BioForsk, I actually read the report to figure out how someone could claim that FAO would come to this conclusion. The argument was that organic food principles would increase the need for labor, increase need for self-sustaining household, and decrease transportation. Organic farming in this case is just a proxy for low growth economic development. These so-called contributions are not a result of organic farming; organic farming is a result of keeping poor people poor.