POCATELLO, Idaho — A leading supplier of organic flour will host a meeting here to recruit new growers as part of an ongoing effort to double U.S. organic wheat acreage by 2019.

To further the goals of its Organic Initiative, launched in December, Ardent Mills will meet with growers from noon to 4 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Pocatello Red Lion Hotel, 1555 Pocatello Creek Road. Growers may RSVP by completing a registration form at ardentmills.com/tcap.

Staff from Oregon Tilth will attend to answer conventional growers’ questions about transitioning some acres to organic, addressing topics such as the agronomic, paperwork and regulatory challenges of switching.

“We’ve been approached by some of our large flour customers who are looking at the trend in organic and transparency back to the grower, and they see this market as a steady market, growing going forward,” said Shrene White, director of specialty grains with Risk Management, the merchandising group that sources wheat and grain for Ardent Mills. “But they’re concerned about steady supply.”

Ardent Mills also hosted a meeting Jan. 12 in Fargo, N.D., and scheduled a Jan. 22 meeting in Fort Morgan, Colo. Ardent Mills sources organic wheat from several Western states, including Idaho, Washington and Oregon, and has organic milling facilities in Denver and Commerce City, Colo.

U.S. growers currently raise about 263,000 acres of organic wheat, according to the most recent USDA estimates.

Industry sources say the organic premium is strong, as organic prices have held steady while conventional wheat prices have fallen.

“Organic prices have been about 400 percent of the regular wheat prices,” said Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Director Blaine Jacobson.

Jacobson said Idaho has a well-established organic wheat grower base, and he believes the organic market is poised for exceptional growth in coming years, as processors respond to customer demand. Utah mills in Logan and Lehi also buy a large volume of Idaho organic grain, Jacobson said.

Richard Larsen, a Monteview, Idaho, grower who sells to Utah mills, said organic yields average roughly 30 percent less than conventional. He believes his rotation, which also includes organic potatoes and alfalfa, helps keep the weeds in check.

Larsen started making the transition to organic six years ago when the premium was considerably less, anticipating declining conventional prices would make the effort pay. Today, his operation is completely organic, and his organic wheat fetches $13 to $14 per bushel.

“I know the transition is tough — it’s really tough,” Larsen said. “You take less yield, you can’t do anything about the bugs and you don’t get any more money for three years.”