Viewpoint: LEGO’s ‘The Organic Garden’ — Exclusive promotion of organic farming provides a misleading picture of agriculture

My brothers and I loved playing with LEGOs growing up. We would make little farms and towns. We had houses and families. The possibilities were endless and we enjoyed it for hours at a time.

Yet even our favorite childhood toys can’t escape today’s political culture. Take a new addition to the LEGO family: The Organic Garden. It’s a whimsical little set with a number fruits and vegetables, garden tools, rain, and bees. LEGO claims the set aims to “help parents spark conversations about what grows in the garden and introduces kids to the idea of an ecosystem.” I support all of that, but why does it have to be organic?

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Truthfully, this probably isn’t a big deal. It’s a toy with a silly adjective that doesn’t really mean anything. Most home gardens are likely organic, just because they don’t have the pest pressure that a farm would have.

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I guess it bothers me because these subtle cues to children add up over time. The juice in their happy meal is organic. Food packaging sports organic and non-GMO labeling. Some crib and sheet sets are made without “toxic pesticides.”

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here