Is 'organic' really organic?

Eugene and I did a presentation on sustainable business on an organic market called "Li-Rhun" a month ago. Li-Rhun do seem like a very organic market to me; however, after reading "Big Organic", an excerpt from "The Omnivore's Dilemma", I start to question whether organic businesses are really organic.

The word 'organic' came from the countryside of California in 1969. This organic movement soon disseminated across the country . Although the organic movement faced a big failure called "Alar Scare" in 1990s, it soon recovered. Many big companies started to sell organic produces. They turned organic farming/gardening into an organic business, and then to the organic industry we now see. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also steppe in to try to set a standards for 'organic'. The process of setting a standard took a decade long; however, the standard is, in fact, pointless.

The USDA said, to raise organic animals, as long as animals have "access to outdoor/pasture", it is defined organic. This definition is vague and meaningless because people can find loopholes and break this standard very easily. I find a similarity between the standard USDA set up and the Mark-to-Market strategy Enron had. The Mark-to-Market strategy also has many loopholes that the CEO can make false claims easily.

'Organic' was originally designed to feed people in a way that is closer to nature. Unfortunately, it became unsustainable once the businesses stepped in. The reading defined 'unsustainable' as "sooner or later it must collapse" and I find this parallel to Enron's failure. Enron was originally a successful business, however, the temptation of profits blindfolded their eyes. This is similar to the big business that stepped into organic farming. In both cases, the true meaning of organic and the original goal of Enron were mislead to a devastating dead-end.

I think that the whole process of organic farming turned into organic industry, is not out of will. The reason why farmers cooperated with super markets or other larger businesses is because there is a huge demand from the consumers. In order to suite the need of the markets, some farms choose to be industrialized. If the farmers of small farms does not find new ways to sell their product, they'll face a danger of dying out. Oppositely, Enron turned out to be so avaricious was out of their own will . No outside force was really pushing them to become greedy or start lying to the others. Enron could still be a good business even if it faces some outside pressure or expectations.

This reading really got me start questioning whether organic is organic. Although the growing process of vegetables, fruits, and other produces can be organic, but how about food processing and distribution? It takes a lot of energy resources to pack and ship the products to all over the country, or even the whole world. I think the problem is because organic farms are only centered in one area. In the reading, organic farms in California are responsible a big percentage of organic produces in the US. Therefore, it requires a lot of long-distance shipping from California to other states.
I think the problem of overuse of energy can be alleviated if the farms are more localized. However, it is a challenge for big businesses to work with small, local farms. This is a problem that all the state governments, even the whole world, need to work on.