By Bill Duesing
I stopped into a nearby chain supermarket on the way home from
work the other day to do a little shopping.
Just outside the entrance were piles of two kinds of bagged potting
soil, both clearly labeled organic. One
even bore the OMRI seal. (This means that the Organic Materials Review
Institute has found that the product is suitable for use on an organic farm
according to the Federal Standards for organic agriculture.)
Once inside, I saw a big display of seed packets, proclaiming
boldly that the seeds are organic and non GMO.
Many of the store's staff wore tee shirts with messages about organic on
them.
Like most of the chain's locations, this store has a separate
organic/natural section as well as organic products mixed in with their
conventional counterparts-vegetables and fruits, dried fruits and nuts, dairy
products and pasta for example. This trend is common all over the country. In our travels, it is only in the very rural
Midwest and Intermountain west that organic products are rare.
Forty-five years after NOFA started promoting local and organic
agriculture, it seems like we've won on the organic issue. Consumers get it,
even as industrial agriculture and its suppliers and supporters continue their
decades long resistance and/or hostility to organic. I know there is a lot more
work to do to convert all of our agriculture and food systems to organic
practices, but the rate of growth in sales and consumer interest mean that it
is inevitable.
According to US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack:
America's organic industry is booming,
creating important opportunities for farmers and ranchers and adding to the
vibrancy of rural America. Under the Obama Administration, we've made
transformative investments to help the organic sector thrive by making
certification more attainable, providing more support for organic operations,
and expanding international markets. As consumer demand continues to grow, USDA
is here to support producers and help them access the hunger for American-grown
organic products...Organic food is one of the fasting growing segments of
American agriculture.
The USDA organic program has certified more than 21,900 organic
operations to date — nearly a 300 percent increase since 2002. Worldwide, the
USDA organic seal has become a leading global standard, with more than 31,000
certified organic operations in more than 120 countries.
According to a recent report from the Organic Trade Association,
total organic food sales in this country rose 10.6 percent in 2015 to $39.6
billion. Since 2007, total organic sales have doubled.
Organic fresh fruit and vegetable sales were $13 billion last
year, up ten percent from 2014. That
figure also includes estimates of sales from farmers markets, retail stores,
community supported agriculture groups, mail order and online sales, as well as
direct sales to consumers and exports.
It does not include the value of vegetables produced organically in the
increasing number of home, community and school gardens.
Sales of organic apples have grown (12 to 15 percent a year for
four or five years) while sales of conventional apples have fallen (1 to 2
percent each year).Consumers understand the value of purchasing organic food.
The food market is shifting toward clean ingredients, including organic ones,
in response to consumer pressure.
Another survey found that nearly three quarters of the
families in this country make an effort to buy organic and that 85 percent of
parents said that buying organic was extremely or very important when
purchasing baby foods. And, 84 percent said the same about buying foods for
their children.
Even though, according to the USDA, there was a 12 percent
increase last year in the total number of certified organic farms and
processors/handlers in this country, organic production doesn't keep up with
the demand. In 2015, there was a 9 percent increase just in certified organic
farms alone. You can search a list of
all 31,000 plus certified operations here.
According to Carl Jorgensen, the director of global consumer
strategy of wellness at Daymon Worldwide (a brand-building company), “Organic
is mainstream now...At the very least, three-fourths of American consumers are
purchasers of organic products. That’s not a niche, that’s mainstream.” He was
reacting to PepsiCo's launch of organic Gatorade.
As reported in BeverageDaily, Jorgensen said he wouldn’t be
surprised to see Coca-Cola launch its own organic version flagship products in
the near future in response to PepsiCo’s announcement. He cited a number of
other companies, including Campbell’s and General Mills, that are taking steps
to "go organic," remove GMOs* and utilize all-natural ingredients -
to bring in profits from the “better-for-you” market.
Another OTA survey looked at household income, poverty
rates and growth rates in what it calls "organic hotspots." Those are
counties in the United States with a high level of organic agricultural
activity that have neighboring counties also with high organic activity. The Penn State agricultural economist who did
the study found that in those organic hotspots median household income is over
$2,000 greater and the poverty rate is reduced by more than one percent. Being
an organic hotspot reduced poverty more than anti-poverty programs such as SNAP
(formerly known as food stamps) and the Women, Infants and Children programs.
The map of organic hotspot
counties is not surprising. They are
concentrated in the Northeast, upper Midwest and along the West Coast. The only hot spot in Connecticut is in
southeastern Connecticut, but we are surrounded with hotspot counties on Long
Island, in much of Massachusetts and in the Hudson Valley. The study found that the hot spots are
concentrated in states with non-profit organizations that provide both
certification and educational programs and services for farmers and those where
the state provides certification services.
The NOFA chapters in New York and Vermont provide certification and
education as do the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the
Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. Baystate Organic
Certifiers, formed from the NOFA/Mass certification program, provides
certification services in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New
Jersey, the state provides certification. At the time when certification programs
were first established prior to the October 2002 effective date of the National
Organic Program, CT NOFA was still an all-volunteer organization without the
resources to create a USDA accredited certification program. We encouraged the
Connecticut Department of Agriculture to become a certifier, but their
application was rejected. That was the time when Governor Rowland was trying to
get rid of the Department of Agriculture so there weren't the resources needed
to fix the application and reapply.
All this presents us with two questions.
1. With greater consumer enthusiasm and more economic success,
why hasn't organic grown even faster?
For an answer, look to the playbook of the tobacco, pesticide, lead and
fossil fuel industries or read the new book Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Or
read this piece about Agroecology, a traditional and mostly organic
agricultural system. The eminent
agroecologist Professor Miguel Altieri put it this way:
The issue seems to be political or
ideological rather than evidence or science based. No matter what data is
presented, governments and donors influenced by big interests marginalize
agroecological approaches focusing on quick-fix, external input intensive
'solutions' and proprietary technologies such as transgenic crops and chemical
fertilisers. It is time for the international
community to recognize that there is no other more viable path to food
production in the twenty-first century than agroecology.
2. And, what about the other issues that have been important for
NOFA over the last nearly five decades: local production, food justice and climate
change? We're working on all of those
through our beginning farmer programs, our work with the Agricultural Justice
Project and the new Carbon Farming Initiative. We probably don't have another
45 years to make great progress on these issues.
Clearly, we've got a lot more growing to do.
*Labeling GMOs is another issue where consumers and,
increasingly, consumer products companies are getting it. This essay by long time organic farmer
and NOFA member Elizabeth Henderson is important in this context.
