Robin O’Sullivan. American Organic

What is organic food? At surface, this might seem like an easy question to answer. However, as Robin O’Sullivan convincingly points out in American Organic: A Cultural History of Farming, Gardening, Shopping, and Eating, the meaning of organic food and its supporting movement has constantly changed and is filled with contradictions. And yet the movement has succeeded and continues to thrive because it has found a way to navigate these dichotomies. As O’Sullivan compellingly argues, organics have become “entrenched in the lives of all Americans, whether they eat organic food or not” (2). The evolution that the book traces illustrates how a movement can simultaneously challenge the underpinnings of American food production and consumption and still appear on the shelves of corporate behemoths such as Walmart. O’Sullivan begins her exploration of the organic movement in its most logical spot, with a close consideration of the life and work of J. I. Rodale, considered to be the inspiration for the organic movement in America. Rodale himself embodied the many contradictions at the heart of the organic movement. An urbanite, Rodale became enchanted with agricultural life, moving from New York City to central Pennsylvania in 1941. What started as a hobby soon became a life’s passion, and Rodale began a crusade to promote chemical-free farming that he described as an “imitation of Nature” (17).

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