Demand for organic food outstrips supply
An interesting AP article on the hypergrowth of organic food demand in the US:
Organic products still have only a tiny slice, about 2.5 percent, of the nation’s food market. But the slice is expanding at a feverish pace. Growth in sales of organic food has been 15 percent to 21 percent each year, compared with 2 percent to 4 percent for total food sales....
The number of organic farms — an estimated 10,000 — is also increasing, but not fast enough. As a result, organic manufacturers are looking for ingredients outside the United States in places like Europe, Bolivia, Venezuela and South Africa.
A shift to organic farming and organic food consumption is beneficial to public health, the economy and the environment. As the knowledge base of organic farming expands, we will hopefully see more domestic production and costs stabilizing at points that can be accessed by all economic levels of society. An interesting quote below on the environmental implications of organic farming:
Says Gary Hirshberg, president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm Inc., “Anybody who’s helping to take toxins out of the biosphere and use less poisonous chemicals in agriculture is a hero of mine. There’s enormous opportunity here for everybody to win, large and small.”
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