All About Organics
Organic Consumers Association Campaigns, Essays, Headlines, Action Alerts, Downloads and Videos on Organic Food.
Organic food is pure food. It's safer, more nutritious and free of chemical additives. Organic crops are grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and organic livestock are raised without antibiotics, growth hormones or other drugs. Organic food isn't genetically modified or irradiated.
Madison's largest grocery cooperative on Williamson Street decided to drop the brand owned by Dean Foods Co. because of long-held concerns over practices at some of the large farms that supply organic milk to the company. The issues were raised by some of the co-op's members, said co-op services manager Lynn Olson.
Willy Street is among about 10 co-ops and retailers across the country that have taken action against Horizon, from posting signs to an outright Read more
Who’s What --Acronyms used in this Article
GMOs - Genetically Modified Organisms
NOP – National Organic Program
NOSB – National Organic Standards Board
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In the EU, corporate inroads into the organic world are following different paths than in the U.S., but debates about potential consequences for farmers and consumers sound familiar
Pop quiz: Where’s the world’s most valuable organic market?Read more
Michael Sligh, farmer, author, founding chair of the National Organics Standards Board and director of the Sustainable Agriculture Program at RAFI-USA, takes the long view. “This is a crisis of success!” he insists, talking about the split in the organic industry caused by last fall’s amendment of the Organic Food Production Act. “We wouldn’t be in this position unless we had been more successful than any of us could have dreamed ten or fifteen years ago!”
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http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/corporate_organic.cfm
Concentration ratios of the top agricultural firms, 2001
Beef packers (Tyson, ConAgra, Cargill, Farmland) 81%
Corn exports (Cargill-Continental Grain, ADM, Zen Noh) 81%
Soybean crushing (ADM, Cargill, Read more
Either way you look at it, there is little question that corporate America is beginning to embrace the organic standards. Most would agree with this statement because it omits the principles and values of organic agriculture. Big business now provides a considerable percentage of the certified organic products now stocked on supermarket—and many natural groceries—shelves.
According to the 2005 Whole Foods Market Organic Trend Tracker, “65% of Americans have tried organic foods and beverages, jumping from just over half (54%) in both 2003 and 2004
Read moreIt seems like there is always a new “crossroads” being encountered in the recent history of organic regulations and growth. Starting in 1989, the organic community struggled with the initial drafting and passage of the Organic Food Production Act, then through the early years of debates about standards with the NOSB, then the various versions of the proposed regulations (Save Organic Standards!) Accreditation of certifiers began in 2001, then implementation of the rules occurred with much anxiety in 2002, a rider to the law was added and repealed in 2003 (the chicken feed
Read moreThe passage last October of an amendment to the Organic Foods Production Act has split the organic movement. Steve Gilman’s centerfold article in this issue conveys some of the anger which many felt at the way the amendment was pushed through Congress by the Organic Trade Association and a minority of organic “big food” companies.
This issue of The Natural Farmer was commissioned by the NOFA Interstate Council to take a broad look at where we, small scale organic farmers, gardeners and consumers, now stand relative to the industry we helped
Read moreEverything from fear to loathing. From nonchalance to cautious optimism. "Undoubtedly, we've got mixed emotions about it," says Tom Lively, senior sales representative of Eugene-based Organically Grown Company - the largest distributor of organic produce in the Northwest.
Inevitably, there will Read more
Kellogg has taken serious note of the $15 billion organic products market that is growing nearly 20% a year.
Though it's a $15 billion market growing at a rate of nearly 20% annually for nearly a decade, organics have largely remained the province of niche players and smaller brands snapped up by Read more
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