Why Silk Soy Milk's Parent Company Is Throwing American Farmers and Consumers Under the Bus

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One advantage local garlic producers have going for them is that most Chinese garlic is the soft-neck variety, which is inferior -- in terms of flavor, clove size and peelability -- to the hard-neck varieties favored by many American garlic growers. But while farmers markets are spreading like weeds and creating ever more opportunities for consumers to buy the good stuff directly from growers, most Americans continue to reach for the netted bulbs of garlic within easy reach at the supermarket, or jars of peeled and chopped garlic.

Consumers buy organic for several reasons, including lighter environmental impact, cleaner and safer working conditions for farmworkers and the perceived health benefits of organic foods -- or at least their lack of toxic health detriments. Unfortunately, the import-fueled corporatization of questionably organic food is making all of these attributes less likely.

Silk's road to China is a well-worn trail and further evidence that organic as we knew it is dead, replaced by gigantic "Chi-ganic" corporations that are in it for all the wrong reasons.