\Much the same is happenign with organic now. Who knows where it will lead...???\\
Well, we know where it will lead if left to it's own dynamics. In the herb business, the biggest problem is that consumers think price only and do not make an attempt to work in the realm of quality. This means that when Wal-Mart started carrying a line of herbs, people stopped visiting their local herbalist and bought their herbs from wal-mart. It didn't matter to them that the walmart echinacea tinctures were made from herb purchased through commodities exchange which resulted in tinctures made from leaf and stem and no root (a common fact This means tht while the active ingredients may be 'certified' at the strength of a root-flower-leaf tincture, the incidents of alkaloid 'trash' is much higher so the medicinal effectiveness is much lower) or that a stronger US market let to more importation replacing local growers and with that importation came more unrecognized 'substitution' or counterfiting (look-a-like plant matter replacing medicinal herbs), which led, of course, to more and more American households saying 'we tried herbs, they don't work.'
I guess everyone has looked at the leighway provided to manufacturers of organically certified packaged goods. It's downright horrifying what can be passed off as 'organic.'
All this means, once again, that the essence organic grower will be swamped with inappropriate competition.
The biggest hope is that people like Perry can educate the public to the true value of FRESH AND LOCAL. Once they are aware of that, they may pay more attention to how little the industrial food system really has to offer them.
