shortage of organic food - article

[Guest guest]

OK - this is the story that people told me the other link I sent didn't work

- so I tracked the article and printed it here. There is a nice graph at the

site... not sure this link will work for all computers.

 

Louise

 

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0707-04.htm

 

Published on Friday, July 7, 2006 by the Associated Press

 

Demand for Organic Food Outstrips Supply

 

by Libby Quaid

 

 

America's appetite for organic food is so strong that supply just can't keep

up with demand. 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.

 

Organic means food is grown without bug killer, fertilizer, hormones,

antibiotics or biotechnology.Mainstream supermarkets, eyeing the success of

organic

retailers such as Whole Foods, have rushed to meet demand. The Kroger Co.,

Safeway Inc. and SuperValu Inc., which owns Albertson's LLC, are among those

selling their own organic brands. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said earlier this year it

would double its organic offerings.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.That is no surprise, said Barbara

Robinson, head of the Agriculture Department's National Organic Program. The

program provides the round, green " USDA Organic " seal for certified products.Her

agency is just now starting to track organic data, but Robinson believes the

United States is importing far more organic food than it exports. That's true of

conventional food, too. " That is how you stimulate growth, is imports

generally, " she said. " Your own industry says we're tired of importing this; why

should

I pay for imports when I could start producing myself? " " We're doing a lot of

scrambling, " said Sheryl O'Loughlin, CEO of Clif Bar Inc. " We have gotten to

the point now where we know we can get a call for any ingredient. " The makers of

the high-energy, eat-and-run Clif Bar needed 85,000 pounds of almonds, and

they had to be organic. But the nation's organic almond crop was spoken for.

Eventually, Clif Bar found the almonds — in Spain. But more shortages have

popped

up: apricots and blueberries, cashews and hazelnuts, brown rice syrup and

oats.Even Stonyfield Farm, an organic pioneer in the United States, is pursuing

a

foreign supplier; Stonyfield is working on a deal to import milk powder from

New Zealand. " I'm not suggesting we would be importing from all these places, "

said Gary Hirshberg, president and CEO of Stonyfield Farm Inc. " But for

transition purposes, to help organic supply to keep up with the nation's growing

hunger, these countries have to be considered. " The dilemma of how to fill the

gap

between organic supply and demand is part of a long-running debate within

America's booming organic industry. For many enthusiasts, organic is about more

than the food on their plates; it's a way to improve the environment where they

live and help keep small-scale farmers in business. " If organic is something

created in the image of sustainable agriculture, we certainly haven't

accomplished that yet, " said Urvashi Rangan, a scientist for Consumers Union.

" What

people do have to understand is if that stuff comes in from overseas, and it's

got an organic label on it, it had to meet USDA standards in order to get

here. " The issue causes mixed feelings for Travis Forgues, an organic dairy

farmer in

Vermont. " I don't like the idea of it coming in from out of this country, but

I don't want them to stop growing organic because of that, " Forgues said. " I

want people to say, `Let's do that here, give a farmer another avenue to make a

livable wage.' " A member of the farmer-owned Organic Valley cooperative,

Forgues got his dairy farm certified nearly 10 years ago. Organic Valley

supplies

milk to Stonyfield.Switching to organic is a difficult proposition. Vegetable

grower Scott Woodard is learning through trial and error on his Putnam Valley,

N.Y., farm. One costly mistake: Conventional farmers can plant seeds when they

want and use pesticides to kill hungry insect larvae. If Woodard had waited

three weeks to plant, the bugs that ate his seeds would have hatched and left.

Organic seeds can be double the price of conventional. " There's not a lot of

information out there, " Woodard said. " We try to do the best we can. Sometimes

it's too late, but then we learn for next time. " Stonyfield and Organic Valley

are working to increase the number of organic farms, paying farmers to help

them switch or boost production. Stonyfield, together with farmer-owned

cooperative Organic Valley, expects to spend around $2 million on incentives and

technical help in 2006, Hirshberg said. Other companies offer similar help. And

the industry's Organic Trade Association is trying to become more of a resource

for individual farmers. Caren Wilcox, the group's executive director,

described how an Illinois farmer showed up in May at an industry show in

Chicago. " He

said, `I want to get certified. Help me,' " Wilcox said. " It was a smart thing

to do, but the fact that he had to get into his car and go down to McCormick

Center says something about the availability of information. " In the meantime,

manufacturers like Clif Bar and Stonyfield still prefer to buy organic

ingredients, wherever they come from, instead of conventional crops in the U.S.

" Anybody who's helping to take toxins out of the biosphere and use less

poisonous

chemicals in agriculture is a hero of mine, " Hirshberg said. " There's enormous

opportunity here for everybody to win, large and small. " Copyright © 2006 The

Associated Press###