And now – Organic Cheetos!
When Warren Weber and a band of other shaggy Northern California farmers started growing organic lettuce in the 1970s, they never thought it would come to this: organic Cheetos.
Frito-Lay, maker of the popular neon-orange snack food, is plowing into the organic market. So are dozens of other mega-producers – the very companies that organic farmers once derided.
Indeed,new federal regulations for organic food are forcing smaller farmers in California to drop out, and instead say their food is “chemical free”.
Just as organically produced food moves into the mainstream with federal oversight and a USDA seal of approval, Coleman and many other pioneers of the organic farming movement in California are dropping out, unable or unwilling to fill out the paperwork and pay the necessary fees to get certified as “organic” under new U.S. Department of Agriculture rules that take effect next week.