When Organic is not "Organic"

Having just arrived back from a break with the family I thought I'd share a few observations we made about what "Organic" is to Organic Gertrude. When we opened the first store in Gertrude St back in 2001 we did so around the same time as several other organic stores in Melbourne. We all got to know each other well at the early morning markets and we still stand around sharing advice, new products, more reliable suppliers, which wholesaler has the best carrots and so forth. We also visit each others stores and talk shop over coffee. For the most part the suppliers are the same, keen to share new products and ideas and passionate about what they are doing. This is how I was introduced to the industry. It was friendly, open in the most part and there was definitely a sense of a shared goal. What exactly that goal is has not been a constant, it has changed and grown over the 12 years we've been doing this.
Why am I telling you this? Well whilst we were visiting a large store in Queensland my partner asked about the origins of a particular product, not where it was grown but who supplied it. Now within the industry that we had grown our store in this was a question that would be readily answered. Then you'd generally launch into a half hour chat about other products, some ideas and so forth. In this particular case the staff member told my partner she was not allowed to share that information and that she'd have to get the manager. Some time later a guy comes to us, who's not the manager but another staff member. My partner introduces herself and tells him a little about our store and how we've been looking for a supplier of that particular product. He then tells my partner that the store doesn't share product information and that how does he really know where we're from and implies that she might be trying to gather information to open a store nearby. After a short and feisty rebuttal from my tall and feisty partner we leave.
It made us think more about what operating an organic food business is to us as opposed to what business is to many others in the current world we live in. Sure we're here to make a living but we're also here to make connections with other people in the industry, we're here to get the 'organic' message out there, to show people how good the food is and why it makes clear sense to eat it. We're here to connect the end consumer to the farmer by knowing where and who grew the food. We're here to offer a point of difference to the mass produced, often heavily sprayed food and over processed food product that supermarkets are selling. Surely we're in this together? Funnily enough the very next store we visited the owner was more than happy to tell my partner the supplier of the product and we followed that up with the usual half hour chat.
 Anyway it just reinforced our views that the word Organic is more than just about selling food that hasn't been sprayed with chemicals. It's also about community, it's about sharing knowledge, it's about connecting with others and it's also about having some fun and making a living whilst doing all of this. I was going to have a rant about the "corporate culture" that has invaded our psyche and how it's now ok to push ethics and morals and community to one side in the pursuit of an extra dollar. How it's fine to abuse animals, the environment and the disadvantaged to make an extra dollar. How's it fine to sell food that is trumped up sugar and fat to our kids and then dump the problem on underfunded hospitals within the community - all for an extra dollar. But I'm not going to as I've just got back from a holiday with 2 kids and I'm totally relaxed.....well maybe a little relaxed.
 Russ