IT’S BEEN MENTIONED to me that the organic food industry offers little by way of alternative to the mainstream food industry that supplies our supermarkets when it comes to product packaging. When in organic food stores I’ve made my own informal survey of the packaging and found that the two food systems — organic and mainstream — come out about even when it comes to packaging.
Difference to the supermarket is no longer a point of difference for organics because the industry helps stock those same supermarkets that organic buyers have sometimes been critical of. Organics in the supermarket, however, is a good idea because it makes the food available to more people, though I was recently told of a supermarket removing organic lines because they didn’t earn their shelf space in economic terms.
But back to packaging. What’s made me write about it and organics? A visit to a small food store that stocks a lot of organc lines near where I live, is what. Needing some oats and grain flakes to make my morng muesli, I walked in and found the cereals on offer… three or four certified organic cereals… from the USA… no value for these for Australian farmers, so I skip them. A packet of Kellog’s cornflakes with an ‘Australian made’ label… at least their purchase would support our farmers, if the label means what it appears to.
On my way out of the shop I noticed some firm looking Pink Lady apples… organic, so the sign said. But I didn’t need the sign to tell me that they were organic. The huge sticker plastered on each and every apple more then adequately told me that.
Now, stickers on apples is unfortunately comon these days but these organic apples had the largest stickers I have ever seen disfiguring a piece of fruit… they were huge. My question was this: why? Why does the industry find it necessary to market its products by sticking a big, colourful sticker on every apple that the buyer then has to peel off and discard? I know it’s a little thing, but why does an industry that constantly makes claim to its environmental benefit have then to show that it cares so little about the environmental costs of waste that it forces the customer to pass into the waste stream the excess packaging, those stickers, that it deems so necessary to its marketing? Sure, those stickers identified an organic product, its oint of difference, but they also highlighted a point of sameness — waste creation.
That wasn’t the end of it. Seeking one of those items that you usually can’t buy in an organic supplier, I walked into the supermarket and, as usual, cast an enquiring eye over the fresh produce. And what did I find? Organic kiwifruit, and non-organic kiwifruit. How did they stack up in terms of packaging? Well, the organic line won out again for its excessive packaging. Where the non-organic was offered in a net, the organic was packaged six to a plastic box.
Here’s my point. These incidents are minor but they are also indicators of a problem the organic industry has. It has two problems, actually, and both are barriers but in different ways. The cost of organics puts it out of reach of many shoppers and the perception and expectation of higher cost puts it out of the purchasing intention of many who can afford it. This I have seen.
The other barrier to organics is excess packaging, like those kiwifruit in the supermarket. That deters the many in our cities who know the financial and environmental cost of our waste stream, espcially food packaging waste.
When will the organics industry think seriously about the packaging problem it has in the eyes of many who are its natural customer base? There are options — the greater use of recyclable packaging or the use of no packaging at all, such as how those organic kiwifruit could have been sold.
I consider myself fortunate as I have to buy less and less from either supermarkets or specialist food stores. As Food Connect City Cousin (City Cousins operate the Food Connect weekly distribution points for the community supported agriculture enterprise) the organic (certified and uncertified provided as ‘chemical free’) foods I get come unwrapped, without stickers and packaged is a cardboard box that is returned for reuse.
