Tearing Down Organic Won't Cost Them a Thing. It Will Cost You Everything.

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Something is happening on social media that demands a direct response.

A growing number of very large content creators, influencers and self-appointed food experts on Instagram have been attacking organic with increasing intensity — calling it “the greatest gaslight of all time,” “worthless,” and “a scam.” They present themselves as truth-tellers cutting through industry propaganda.

They are not. And it is time to say so plainly.

This is not a good-faith critique of a flawed system. When it comes to presenting an alternative farming method to organic, no better framework is proposed and no constructive path forward is laid out. There is only destruction — and the monetization of that destruction. Every click, every share, every outraged comment helps to put money in their pocket. Organic is simply the vehicle. They do not appear to care about it at all.

What these influencers fail to grasp is that the organic system they are tearing down governs with federal certification, soil standards, a prohibition on synthetic pesticides and genetically-engineered ingredients, annual certifier inspections, chain-of-custody requirements and fraud enforcement. Tens of thousands of farmers, certifiers, inspectors and brands operate within these agreed rules every single day.

And if organic were to disappear, what would we be left with?

The conventional food system:

* A system where everything can be sprayed with glyphosate, a weedkiller that causes cancer, and dicamba, an herbicide so damaging that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said it has “torn apart the social fabric of many farming communities.”

* A system where genetically-engineered foods and synthetic biology ingredients — novel genetic combinations that have bypassed millions of years of evolutionary development — enter our bodies with no meaningful accountability.

* A system optimized to produce food as cheaply as possible, with the true cost externalized onto farmers, communities and the environment.

* A system where conversations about soil health, animal welfare and seed sovereignty simply end — because the only goal of industrial agriculture is profit, and profit alone.

These influencers calling it a scam will never spend a day on an organic farm.

They will never look a fourth-generation farmer in the eye — someone who has spent years earning certification, paid thousands in annual fees, worked without synthetic shortcuts and done it not for the money, but because they believe the world deserves better food — and tell them to their face that what they do is worthless. That their life’s work is a gaslight.

But that is exactly what these people are saying.

When organic farmers lose markets, their farms fail. When their farms fail, they do not come back. There is no version of this story where tearing down organic makes anyone’s life better — except the person monetizing the outrage.

Organic is not perfect. Enforcement must be stronger. Fraud must be eliminated. Organic Insider has said all of this and will continue to say it — because the system is worth fighting for.

But there is a profound difference between demanding a better organic system and burning it down with nothing to replace it.

One approach serves farmers, consumers and the planet. The other serves only the person holding the camera.

With gratitude, Max Goldberg, Founder