Women Are the Driving Force for the $15 Billion Organic Market

>From the Connecticut Post
http://www.connpost.com/womanwise/ci_2765496
05/28/2005

Pick of the crop: Choosy moms are choosing organic foods

AMANDA CUDA acuda@ctpost.com

Britt Mackenzie is making an effort to be healthy. The 29-year-old
Bridgeport woman tries to buy organic foods when she can, particularly
fruits and vegetables. She and her husband, whom she said is "really into
this," don't have a grand reason for including organic items in their diets.

Their reasoning is simple, she said. "It doesn't have as many chemicals,"
Mackenzie said. "It's just better for you." She isn't the only one making
the switch to more natural foods. Sales of organic products reached $12.7
billion in 2004, and have shown a steady growth rate of 20 percent per year
over the past dozen years, according to the Organic Trade Association, a
1,600-member trade organization based in Massachusetts. Organic products
also are becoming a more common sight, not just in specialty shops like
Nature's Way, but also in large chain supermarkets, such as Shaw's.

The OTA defines "organic" foods using the guidelines of the Organic Foods
Production Act, established by the United States Department of Agriculture.
In general, the act defines organic foods as those produced largely without
chemicals, such as pesticides and hormones.

The OTA doesn't keep track of what percentage of organic sales are to
female customers, but spokeswoman Holly Givens guesses it's a large number.
In general, women do the shopping for their families, so if anybody's
bringing home pesticide-free veggies and hormone-free milk products, it's
the women, Givens said. "We know that women have significant influence over
what comes into their homes," she said.

Women also tend to be health conscious, Givens said, and it's usually some
sort of health event < be it an allergy, an illness or even the birth of a
child < that leads people to turn to organic produce.

However, area nutritionists are torn over the health benefits of eating
organic. Nimesh Bhargava, chief clinical nutrition manager at St. Vincent's
Medical Center in Bridgeport said that, purely by not including pesticides,
organic produce is healthier than its chemically enhanced counterparts.

There's also been some evidence to suggest that foods not treated with
chemicals contain more nutrients, Bhargava said, although, he adds, "we need
more information to support those claims."

Linda Drake, director of the University of Connecticut's nutrition
education program, doesn't believe that there's definitive evidence that
organic produce is more nutritious.

"There's a lot of conflicting research," she said. "Some resources say that
organic foods, particularly vegetables, have more nutrients."

However, Drake said, other resources indicate that the benefits of organic
foods are minimal. Still, she said, the lack of pesticides understandably
makes organic foods appealing to consumers, particularly families.

Though Drake said conventionally raised produce generally follows FDA
guidelines, and isn't usually harmful, "some people don't want any chemicals
used on their foods." Yet, both those in the organic food industry and those
who buy organic food say health is the main reason women buy natural
products.

For Dolores Gray, owner and founder of Nature's Way, health issues led her
to do more than shop for natural foods. Gray started the store more than 30
years ago because her children had a variety of health problems.

She went to conferences, learned about nutrition, and opened the store,
which now sells a variety of natural products, including foods. In addition
to its produce, the store carries a variety of other organic items,
including organic hot dogs.

Gray and other staff at the store agreed that all of Nature's Way's
departments are equally popular among female customers.

Nature's Way Vitamin Manager Mary Legg said that roughly 75 percent of the
store's customers are women, who shop at the store for many of the same
reasons that Gray opened it. "Food is family," Legg said. "A lot of the
time, women come in here with children with allergies [and buy organic foods
for them]."

Officials at other area natural foods stores agreed that women likely are
the driving force behind the organic food boom, and that children are
probably the reason why. Like Nature's Way, Mrs. Green's, a natural food
store in Fairfield has a largely female clientele. Manager J.D. Smith
estimates that 85 to 90 percent of the store's customers are women. The
store carries a variety of organic products, including fruits and vegetables
and dairy. "The number one reason [women shop organic] is the children,"
Smith said. "People are going to take care of their children before they
take care of themselves."

The clientele at the Westport branch of Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, a
chain store that features a wide selection of organic products, is also
overwhelmingly female, said Tess Abalos, the Westport store's community
marketing coordinator. She said that not only does family figure largely in
female customers' decision to go organic, it also was her main motivation
for eating healthier.

"My personal entree into organic shopping came with produce and dairy,"
said Abalos, who has a 10-year-old daughter. "I [especially] didn't want her
to have traditional dairy that may have been injected with hormones."

Joanne Orenstein, 46, of Trumbull, gives similar reasons for her decision
to shop organic. The mother of three, ranging in age from nine to 15,
belongs to a food co-op that features a lot of organic foods, and shops for
organic items at the specialty supermarket Trader Joe's on occasion.

Orenstein said she shops organic partly because she doesn't like the idea
of her family eating foods packed with chemicals.

"I think everything is so toxic," she said. "I don't want to eat
pesticides, or meats shot up with hormones. I don't want my children to be
ingesting that."

Mackenzie and the other women interviewed at Nature's Way last week weren't
shopping for children, but they had their reasons for going organic. Take
Gloria Meyers, 64, of Monroe. A few years ago, she was diagnosed with
osteoporosis, which she took as a sign to change the way she ate. "It was
like a wake-up call to think about nutritional supplements and healthy
foods," she said.

Since then, Meyers has made a number of lifestyle changes, and one of them
is purchasing organic produce.

She's been shopping organic for four years now and, in addition to other
modifications, such as taking nutritional supplements, feels this new habit
has improved her health. "I seem to have much more energy," Meyers said.

Kandy Ray, of Milford, shops organic for herself and her husband, who is
slowly getting used to the idea.

Ray has been on a strictly organic diet for the past six months, and ate
some natural foods before that. She said she made the switch "because of all
the garbage they put in [non-organic] food."

She likes eating foods without so many harmful chemicals, she said, and she
can taste and feel the difference. "It's better," Ray said. "It tastes
better. You feel better physically. [The fruits and vegetables] don't look
perfect, but they taste great."