Organic Food is a Luxury?

In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd, one line in particular struck me as particularly illustrative of the looking-glass world-view of those who continue to uphold the "right" of the U.S. to despoil the world with impunity:

National Review stirred the pot against her: “The truth is, organic food is an expensive luxury item, something bought by those who have the resources.”

On the face of it, yes, if you are doing your grocery shopping in a typical american supermarket, just compare the price of "organic" tomatoes with ordinary tomatoes and you are sure to be hit with sticker shock.

Unsurprisingly this argument is dishonest on multiple levels.

For all of human history, except for comparatively few recent years, "organic food" was the only food available. Though then it was simply "food". For millions today, subsistence farmers and their local communities, cultivating meagre plots that have not yet been appropriated by the agribusiness corporations, planting seeds carefully stored from the previous harvest, those of them at least who have not been coerced in the name of "international aid" to purchase seeds from those same agribusiness corporations, nurturing their crops through the sweat of their brows, using natural fertilizers, unless coerced by the same forces into buying chemical fertilizers, these people do still eat "organic food", though they too just call it "food", and, monetarily at least, this food is cheap.

When comparing the "cost" of the manufactured foods (and make no mistake, even the raw vegetables are manufactured) versus the cost of organic foods, no account is taken of the unaffordable costs of manufactured foods. No account is taken of the incalculable environmental costs of manufactured food. No account is taken of the incalculable health costs resulting from the poor nutritional value of manufactured food. No account is taken of the moral cost to our society as a whole, and each of us as individuals of manufactured food.

If the cost of organic food is so prohibitively high, then I wonder how it is that I see so few luxury cars parked at my local farmers' markets? Are the rich attending in disguise?

No the high cost of supermarket organic food appears to me to result not from "natural market forces" (as if there were such a thing - but another time), but from the cynical market manipulations of corporations trying to co-opt another trend and turn it to their own profit.

I have seen suggested (apparently in all seriousness!), that the time it takes to prepare organic foods is a hidden cost. This argument from indolence carries no weight whatsoever. This unaffordable time comes at the expense of what? Beer slurping in front of the TV with a bag of chips? One of my school teachers used to tell us "I didn't have time means I couldn't be bothered to make time". Guess what, if you are too damn lazy to take time to cook yourself a nutritious dinner, that imposes an unacceptable cost on us all!