THE PC FOOD JUNGLE

"There's a new way to save the world: grocery shopping. In the next couple of weeks, pineapples, mangos and grapes bearing "Fair Trade Certified" stickers will start hitting scores of supermarkets nationwide, part of a broader movement to make shoppers feel good about themselves and the food they are buying. The labels mean that workers in poor countries received higher-than-usual wages and other benefits.

Along with other new buzzwords such as "certified sustainable" and "responsibly traded," Fair Trade Certified food products are being embraced with surprising speed by some of the nation's biggest food marketers -- and not just the alternative natural food stores.....

For years, the word "organic" summed up everything politically correct in food. It became a catch phrase for all kinds of alternative cuisine -- everything from carrots grown in a commune to healthy granola. But now that the term organic is strictly defined and regulated by the government, alternative food producers are looking for new ways to express the difference in their products.

It's all part of a move to cater to the growing niche of shoppers willing to spend more money for products that let them feel they are acting in a socially responsible manner. There's even a name for these people, "LOHAS" consumers, which stands for "lifestyles of health and sustainability," a term coined to describe the popularity of products tied to interests such as yoga, organic food and products that espouse social consciousness....

But while the plethora of socially oriented labels gives companies a chance to look like concerned corporate citizens, all the competing logos and certifications can be baffling to consumers. Unlike the terms "organic" or "low fat," which are regulated by the USDA and FDA, respectively, there is no central authority setting definitions for the new claims. Consumers Union, a consumer advocacy group based in White Plains, N.Y., said it tracks at least 113 different designations, intended to indicate everything from friendliness to birds, to respect for indigenous populations....

Fair trade is probably the most influential initiative. The term first appeared in Europe in the late 1980s on coffee, to indicate that the producers in poor countries received above-market prices.....

Other products, however, may be labeled "fairly traded." Sometimes this simply means that the company that produced them thinks they were fair in their business dealings.....

Then there's the word "local," which has become standard language on restaurant menus to describe everything from tomatoes to beef cheeks. Now it's starting to migrate into specialty food stores.

But one person's local is another person's road trip. Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., for example, a restaurant that pioneered the notion of buying locally, "has stitched together a patchwork of over sixty nearby suppliers," according to its Web site. One farm a couple of hours away supplies most ingredients. Another is near San Diego -- and the other end of the state about 500 miles away."

More here