Book Notes: Green Gone Wrong

When I picked up a copy of Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution I expected my world to be turned upside down (as the dust jacket suggests). Instead, the book explores some unsettling, but mostly un-shocking, cases of the new green economy falling short on its promise to save the world, and some of the obstacles to creating real positive change. Over-consumption is the problem, and it can't be solved by switching to "green" over-consumption, author Heather Rogers tells us.

The first of the book's three sections is about food, which is what caught my interest. It's clear that Rogers is an advocate of local and organic food production, but most what she has to say on the subject is common knowledge. Residential development is encroaching on valuable farm land. Many organic farms aren't financially sustainable. The National Organic Program is underfunded and understaffed. Slaughter facilities don't meet the needs of family farms.

Rogers does a decent job explaining the dilemma that organic food producers face as they expand to try to reach a growing consumer base (a topic we discussed with EWG founder Ken Cook in a recent video). She looks at organic food production abroad, finding that foods produced in China and Latin America that carry the organic seal aren't always held to the same standards as foods grown domestically.

While researching for the book, Rogers visited an organic sugar plantation in Paraguay, and discovered that the farm was in violation of USDA organic standards. She also found that native forests were being clear-cut for farming (a violation of international organic standards), and that registered Fair Trade workers weren't getting a fair wage. None of these findings are expecially earth-shattering, and much worse violations of organic standards surely exist, but Rogers does a nice job of reporting.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend rushing out to buy this one, but if Green Gone Wrong falls into your lap, the food sections are worth a read. 

-Mark