While many consumers appreciated the original intent behind organic certification, most of the consumers' perceptions of organic food in general seemed to be fraught with skepticism.

The tag cloud to the left shows the words consumers immediately thought of when given the phrase "organic food." 

Many people felt that the term "organic" had been co-opted by large corporations (i.e. C6: “It's being bastardized by Walmart organic” and C1: "organic has become a catch phrase") and that it was being used by these corporations simply as a means to make money (C5: "and so people are seeing [organic] as a way to bump up the price, but still engaging in agricultural practices that have the market bottom line as their focus").

Some consumers felt that “organic” no longer meant very much (C11: “I'm skeptical about what the label means”) and that it didn't stand for consumers' values (C7: “I’m suspicious of things that label themselves as organic. Doesn’t seem to be as good an indicator of the things I care about”, and C6: “people have appropriated the technology but not the philosophy of organic”).

Other people also mentioned that they knew farmers who farmed organically but weren't certified organic, because the process was simply too difficult. C8 stated “It’s something I’ve always sort of been, not necessarily suspicious of but I grew up around farmers and there are plenty of farmers that aren’t organic according to the letter of legislation.”