From Tom Philpott, on Mother Jones:
“Mitt Romney hasn’t divulged many details about what kind of agriculture policy he’d pursue as president (sound familiar?). But all signs suggest that he’d follow the agribiz party line. As Wayne Barrett showed in a recent Nation piece (my comment here), Romney has ties to agribusiness giant Monsanto that date to the ’70s, when GMO seeds were an R&D project, not a business model. According to Barrett, Romney, then a young Bain consultant, helped nudge Monsanto on its path away from disgraced industrial chemical concern toward its current status as world-beating agribiz player. Then there’s the agribiz execs and shills the GOP nomineee tapped for his campaign’s Agriculture Advisory Committee.
But guess what? In the privacy of his campaign jet, the beleaugured presidential contender apparently eats organic, reports the Today Show’s Peter Alexander:
And, while I’ve never been invited up front, sources close to the campaign tell me the shelves are stocked with a wide variety of healthy fare. Kashi cereals, hummus, pita as well as organic applesauce. Everything’s organic, I’m told, including the ingredients to Romney’s favorite, peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
Nor is this the first time the Romney family has been linked to organic food. Get a load of this 2002 profile of Ann Romney from the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram and Gazette:
Mrs. Romney was introduced to several practitioners of holistic medicine, who persuaded her to adopt alternative therapies. She now eats organic foods and very little meat. She practices reflexology and undergoes acupuncture treatments. She credits the lifestyle with turning her health around.
I have calls and emails into the Romney campaign to confirm these reports. I have yet to hear back. But if they’re true—and it’s hard to imagine either the Romneys or the journalists would make them up—Romney would hardly be the only prominent politician to publicly promote genetically modified foods while privately avoiding them by sticking to organics. (USDA organic code forbids GMOs from any food labeled organic, along with the application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides).
Indeed, he’s following a tradition that dates to President Bill Clinton, includes George W. Bush and his family, and is alive and well in the White House of Romney’s opponent, Barack Obama. What’s my evidence that the Clintons and Bushes ate organic? Get this, from someone who knows—Walter Scheib, who served as White House during the Clinton and Bush years:..”
The Bovine 
Please understand this one thing: ‘certified organic’ is not a benefit to struggling family farmers. It may benefit, in some small and deceptive manner, a few of the more obedient and subservient of those family farmers, but it is there (the entire ‘certified organic’ system of regulations and standards and promotions and controls) to perform in the manner suggested in this article: which is to feed well and to enhance and make better still, the lives of a select, VERY BIGOTED and wealthy minority….
Please DO NOT buy ‘certified organic’. Even if you can afford it. Buy from genuine farmers’ markets, operating locally and from individual farmers themselves.
THANK YOU!
Well, buying locally has to be something which is available though. In many places it is not, or is in very limited supply because of the four seasons, no rain, whatever the situation may be. This year our farmers markets were pitiful and NO ONE around here can afford the couple of CSA’s we have in the area. So what we have left is what’s at the grocery stores (especially in the winter months) and they always say it’s certified organic but I don’t know whether to believe that or not. I mean, maybe it IS organic, but then again it could be from the same box as the other produce in the store and who would know the difference. When you get it home and taste it, an experienced eater might know if it is or isn’t organic, but generally speaking most people wouldn’t have a clue.
I feel the same about buying chicken at a grocery store, which we try never to do. I have looked at the meats in a grocery though, and even though the packages say antibiotic free or whatever, I have no way of knowing if they truly are or not. When you have to purchase something from a factory type farm I have to assume they lie on the label because there is no truth in packaging/labeling anymore. NONE. We buy meat locally, but sometimes poultry is hard to come by. Most of the time in this area the people who raise the chickens, keep the chickens – they don’t sell them. Big problem. So we tried buying Hutterite chickens but came to find that they feed a mixture of grains which includes soy and corn because some crazy veterinarian told them it was dangerous to let chickens eat grasses and bugs. Good grief. My DH is very allergic to soy, so we knew it right away. They also give a vitamin supplement and an antibiotic in the feed mix. Well, that sorta shot down the idea of buying from Hutterites! We thought they did things naturally but the modern world has gotten them into its snare, too. Imagine that.