Organic Food: The Farmer's Conundrum (Grist Magazine, via AlterNet)

[marmar]

Organic Food: The Farmer's Conundrum

By Tom Philpott, Grist Magazine. Posted March 27, 2007.



If organic food is so popular, why are so few farms transitioning their land?

This article is reprinted by permission from Grist. For more environmental news and humor sign up for Grist's free email service.

On a recent trip to Austin, I visited the flagship Whole Foods -- a vast space where people gather en masse to render financial sacrifice to that new god, organic food. From the depths of the parking lot, as you make your way up to the store, you're urged again and again by a sign that simply says, "Love where you shop." From the doe-eyed look of the supplicants making their way up, and the glazed-eyed look of those carrying their treasure down, most clearly do.

While few Whole Foods stores have the buzz of the Austin flagship, that veritable cathedral of gustatory virtue is emblematic of organic food's rising social status. According to the Organic Trade Association's most current figures , consumer demand for it leapt 16 percent in 2005.

That's a little lower than the 20 percent figure commonly bandied about to describe the market's growth, but it's by no means shabby, considering that the overall U.S. food market grows by just 2 percent to 4 percent per year. It turns out that the $34 billion the food industry drops on marketing every year doesn't inspire people to eat more -- it just gets them to shift around their food dollars from one product to another.

No wonder corporate giants from Wal-Mart to McDonald's are groping for a slice of the organic pie. Generating 16 percent annual growth for a given product normally requires a massive marketing budget; organic foods fly off the shelf just by being labeled as such.

But if consumers are snapping up organics and corporations are scrambling to give them what they want -- if not always exactly what they want -- a funny thing is happening down on the farm: growth in organic acreage isn't coming even close to keeping up with retail-sales growth. That is, existing farms aren't transitioning acres to organic -- and new farms aren't being rolled out -- at nearly the growth rate of organic-food demand. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/49783/

[mainegreen]

1. Join a CSA.

Short circuit the system.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. I tend to avoid organic foods

I don't do it to be perverse or ironic, I do it because the label "organic" is just about meaningless now. The regular fresh foods are still a far cry better than canned or even frozen. "Organic" generally means "overpriced Yuppie Chow".

I wish it weren't so. If "Organic" had real meaning, and its use was regulated by force of law, then it would be useful. As it is, it's a junk label. I know that California has an Organic labeling law, but it is quite limited.

And why should there be two classes of food quality -- one for the rich and one for the rest of us -- anyway? But that's an abstract question. A little is better than none.

This is just one of the many areas of our food supply that need serious reform. Most of the food news coverage is limited to E. Coli, Mad Cow, miracle foods that cure everything from toenail cancer to a wilting willie, and the usual occasional gloating vegetarian. But the entire system of food production, safety, and distribution is badly out-of-whack, and the mishandling of biofuel development will only make it worse.

We don't just need "whole food" or "organic food" ... we need a total reformation of the system.

Once again, I am not optimistic about things.

--p!

[iamgobsmacked]

3. Organic

"But if consumers are snapping up organics and corporations are scrambling to give them what they want -- if not always exactly what they want -- a funny thing is happening down on the farm: growth in organic acreage isn't coming even close to keeping up with retail-sales growth. That is, existing farms aren't transitioning acres to organic -- and new farms aren't being rolled out -- at nearly the growth rate of organic-food demand"


Well all I can say is that is likely a good thing. Look what happened to the family farm when big business got involved. The last thing we need is the same thing happening to the Organic industry. I can just imagine them lobbying for a change to the wording of Organic just as they are soft peddling the "irradiated food" label. Calling irradiated milk "cold Processed". There is already enough room for leeway with the "Organic vs Certified Organic" labeling.