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What is your fantasy food business?
I'd love to have an authentic Mexican food joint in the Midwest. I grew up in the Midwest, and I had thought I'd eaten Mexican food--until I moved to California. Tacos with slow-cooked, tender meat topped with fresh (not tinned) salsa, chopped onion, chopped cilantro, and chopped cabbage, with some homemade hot sauce, were a revelation to me. Having moved back to the Midwest, I find that I can't find a decent taco or torta; I would love to run a place that served real tacos, tortas, chile rellenos, homemade beans, homemade condiments, and homemade tortillas. Alternatively, I'd love to run a coffee shop where you can get a GOOD espresso or cappuccino (no push-button machines) and fresh, satisfying pastry.
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The "organic" food movement may have started out as a move toward a healthier way of life, but it has, for all intents and purposes, become a marketing ploy. It has become trendy, and when something like that becomes trendy, it often loses much of its original purpose. Since the USDA is in direct control of what is labeled "organic" in the US, lobbyists and large industries are able to direct what is "organic" to suit their needs as producers, rather than our desires as consumers. From Wikipedia: "In December 2005, the 2006 agricultural appropriations bill was passed with a rider allowing 38 synthetic ingredients to be used in organic foods. Among the ingredients are food colorings, starches, sausage and hot-dog casings, hops, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, and gelatin. This allowed Anheuser-Busch in 2007 to have its Wild Hop Lager certified organic 'even though [it] uses hops grown with chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides.' "
As a person who likes to make conscientious food choices, this displeases me. The bigger the organic industry gets, the more loopholes there will be to allow them to market questionable items as organic. What's more, many small operations can't even afford to be tested and labeled organic, even though they may employ purer and more sustainable means of production than the heavy-hitters.
Personally, I think the answer is to buy local and grow your own food when possible. Not only does buying local impact the local economy much more directly (and positively), but it has the added benefit of allowing you to form a relationship with the people who actually produce your food. And even though organic and conventional taste about the same most of the time (they do--I used to work at a natural foods grocery in the deli, so I ate a lot of organic food), local produce and meat usually tastes leagues better to me than the grocery store versions. To this day, I haven't had a grocery-store tomato that is as good as the tomatoes my grandmother used to grow in her garden; they are all weak and pale imitations. Add to the fact that you're paying a hefty fuel cost for food that travels from distant locations, and it's kind of a no-brainer.