[Bakha]

Oh god, here comes a Cinco de Mayo, Margarita-fueled analogy from Bakha:

I recently read the Omnivore's Dilemma. This debate reminds me of the trend Pollan outlines with organic food. Back in the 60s, during the initial heyday of organic, the term meant some very specific, but unarticulated things. It was about an entire mindframe of growing food. Not only did one need to not use pesticides, but one needed to grow small, cleave to polyculture over monoculture, depend on local suppliers as much as possible, strive to maintain as "natural" (whatever that means) of a growing environment as one was capable of obtaining, and basically try to work harmoniously with nature in the production of food. Nowadays, however, organic has become a marketable commodity. As such, all of the other, unspoken, considerations of what organic means have fallen by the wayside for the literalist interpretation of the term. If you don't use chemicals, you're organic. The "new organic" growers have adopted mass-production models and abandoned all of the unspoken rules of organic in favor of mass production and great efficiency. Now, all of those who "stayed true" to the initial unspoken code of the movement are decrying the interlopers who have turned the business model into a successful, albeit not necessarily totally inline with the original model, industry. Now, after the fact, the original organic crowd is seeking to distinguish themselves from the "new organic" by calling themselves "beyond organic" to designate that they're actually the ones who still carry the torch for the original intention of the term. The newcomers, on the other hand, see nothing wrong with their procuring of the organic term because they are, technically, organic.

I guess what this points to, as the anti-RPI crowd has recommended, is that the RPI crowd needs to come up with a new term. The original term of RPI has already been diluted to be, basically, meaningless. You can sit around and fight the subcultural flow, or you can buck up, do something practical, and put forth something new.

Edit: I realize that I've probably passed some value judgements with my analogy. For that I am sorry, but I am part of the RPI crowd, so it's natural that my sympathies are going to align with them.