A co-worker tipped me off to an article from last week’s local paper where in an editorial — the author arguing his vaguely-perceived ideologies around ‘organic’ food — an odd sort of statement was left hanging that seemed to correlate the same to good parenting. My co-worker decried the article with her own brand of frustration saying “this is exactly the pseudo-poetic, self-satisfied tone that I’ve grown to… well, detest.”

In expounding on the apparently universal truths of Nirvana-ness that was a local organic market, replete with stereotyped hippie-esque crowd lingering in the aisles, the author (and very early in the article, too) seemed to link one shopping-family’s parenting-style to their choice of diet:

“The only sign of disharmony was a toddler who flopped between two produce shelves and proceeded to scream. His parents reacted calmly, even beatifically, informing the boy that they were moving on to the dairy freezers with or without him. Impressively spazz-free, anxiety-free parenting. It was, in short, an oasis of abundance, health and happiness.”^[1]

Oh, reeeeeeeeal-ly? Hmm…

I’ll let astute readers draw their own conclusions. If this is the quality of arguments for pro-organic food, it won’t take much more than a stiff breeze to topple. I don’t have much to say here other than pointing out my own organic shopping list of logical fallacy: confusing association with causation, post-hoc ergo propter hoc, and not not mention that unstated major premise that organic food is somehow linked to parenting — let alone in a positive way — or vice versa, that good parents know to buy organic, or… sigh.

Heck, I’ve been known to buy organic food now and then — mostly because it offered some kind of variety or just a visual quality that wasn’t otherwise available where I was shopping — such as sugar free juices, fruits and veg that were not quite as picked over in the organic aisle, or even local honey, well, because I was feeling like supporting local farmers. Does that make me a better parent? I hope not, else good parenting is going to get really expensive.

But how do you argue with an assumption of the truthiness of these ideological claims? How about a counter example? And I have just the one: There is a reality-type show here in Canada called “Til Debt Do Us Part” where the debt-councilor-host reigns in the poor money management skills of a new couple each week. I watch it on occasion, and thinking back there was a good counter-example to the ‘organic good parenting’ bunk from above:

“Ivy and Carson haven’t stopped to add up the cost of their family-focused lifestyle. Having a stay at home mom and buying organic are important to them, but are they spending too much time thinking about the wrong kind of green? They say they’re worried about their increasing debt but they can justify every bad decision they’ve made. Gail faces an uphill battle trying to get these two to change their ways – no ifs, ands or buts.”^[2]

In that particular episode what I saw was this: bad parenting — and generally bad lifestyle choices — if only because those parents were driving their family deeply into bad debt (partly) because they were trying to maintain an organic diet. Nice. Not exactly “an oasis of abundance, health and happiness”^[1] from this skepdad’s point of view.

Of course, I’m not trying to argue the other side. This is but a simple refute to the vague claim of parenting utopia via organic shopping from the original editorial, and to put a bit of mud into the wellspring my co-worker called “the idea that organic food creates a culture of bliss, the idea that organic food is healthier, and [the belief] that there’s no need for research when something is considered ‘universal.’” Plop!

[1] Canada finally follows rest of the world into organic consistency. edmontonjournal.com
[2] TIL DEBT DO US PART VI – 6077 – www.foodtv.ca