Organic conglomerates?

Good magazine put together this educational chart that shows the parent companies behind some of the most popular organic food brands. Im all for organic products, but sometimes its easy to forget that just because it is organic, doesn't mean that its from a local farmer, independant producer or in any way better for the environment than regular food (better for your body, yes, but not necessarily anything else). A chef from one of LA's top resaturants made news recently by complaining that produce from the local farmers markets was getting bought up in advance by larger distributors. I imagine there is a lot of this type of stuff happening all over. I know that I have gone to different farmers markets in LA and seen the same companies supplying to multiple, almost like mini-distributors.

There's a lot of in and outs to organic food, most of it I don't know. Hopefully the business will become more transparent in the near future. In the meantime, its probably best to buy as local and organic as you can, cause you never know where that money is going.