When Organics Go Mainstream
The rising mass-market appeal of organic foods has changed the world for the small, local producers who started it all.
Vijay Cuddeford
Organics are the latest corporate success story. Two US organic and natural food retail chains - Wild Oats and Whole Foods Markets - have over 200 outlets and sales of around one billion US dollars annually.1 Food industry giants General Mills, Gerber, Heinz, Dole, Kellogg's, Mars, ConAgra and ADM are all marketing organic food brands. General Mills now owns leading organic manufacturers Cascadian Farms and Muir Glen. Kraft owns Boca Burgers and a share in the Hain Celestial Group, the makers of Celestial Seasonings teas and other natural foods. Heinz has developed organic ketchup. Wal-Mart stocks organic foods. People are even eating organic TV dinners. [See also Who Owns What - corporate ownership of organic companies. - Ed.]
The largest organic supermarket chain in the US has been accused of being anti-union. And corporate consolidation means that five gigantic farms control half of California's $400 million (US) organic produce market.2
For advocates of organic food, the successful entry of large corporate players into the organic market is raising some difficult questions about the key values and vision for sustainable agriculture. On the one hand, activists are happy that organic foods have achieved such wide appeal. Some industry pundits argue that without the support of supermarkets, organics will never develop the political clout needed to shift government policy on food production in the direction of sustainability.3
On the other hand, some worry that the vision of early organic activists - who sought not only healthier food and more environmentally friendly production but also smaller and locally based alternatives to the dominant food system - is being lost in the rush to maximize market share. These critics point out that the current expansion of organics to include sourcing cheap raw materials from developing countries reproduces the neo-colonial structure of the conventional food system.4
They worry that when organics are added to the regular supermarket's dizzying array of choices, the consumer may somehow feel absolved of any need to think critically about the agri-food system. Supermarket organics may allow shoppers to assume they can eat healthier and be greener without changing, or inconveniencing, the consumer lifestyle.
While there's a temptation to lapse into an adversarial point-counterpoint debate, pitting the New and Greedy Corporate Organics against Old Sixties-style Organics, the caricatures have limited usefulness. The range of opinion in the organic movement/industry is much more diverse, and many believe that organics can be defined broadly enough to include a wide variety of practices and values.
Russ Christianson, a co-op specialist who has been involved in organics for two decades, ""The thing is to democratize the food economy - for farmers, distributors, retailers, wholesalers, other food workers, consumers, everyone. Good quality of food and work are the values. This doesn't necessarily mean organic, but it is defined by high quality and diversity."
Growing Canadian
The challenge faced by the organics movement in Canada today is how to expand the commercial success of organics without compromising the values that gave it birth, and how to continue to advocate for a more sustainable and democratic food system overall.
Right now 85 to 90 percent of organic food sold in Canada is imported from the US. 5 Although the Canadian market for organic foods has been rather slow to develop, the last few years have witnessed rapid growth, especially with the entry of the national chain Loblaws into the organics market and the arrival of the US-based organic chains.
Canadian sales of organic food are expanding at about 12 to 14 percent per year and researchers estimate that organic sales will jump from the 1.8 percent share of the retail market they held in 1999 to 4.4 percent by 2010. 6
Elsewhere - in Europe, the US and Japan - organics are also growing at a tremendous rate. It is expected that organic farms will account for ten percent of all farmed land in Europe by 2005. Austria is already at 15 percent, Italy at up to 25 percent, and some provinces of Germany are at 30 percent. 7
Here in Canada, an estimated 430,000 hectares are farmed organically, representing about 0.6 percent of all farmed land in Canada.8 There are an estimated 3236 organic farms in Canada, with Saskatchewan boasting more than one-third of the total. 9
The majority of Canada's organic acreage is devoted to organic grains and oilseeds, a sector where Canada ranks among the top five world producers. 10 The bulk of Canada's organic food production is thus exported to the US, Europe and Japan.
For most commodities in most regions, however, domestic supply in Canada is simply insufficient to meet demand.
Increasing supply
Many Canadian farmers are interested in entering the organic market, but making the transition to organic farming isn't easy. Farmers must learn a new set of skills, yields may suffer in the first few years, and there is usually a three-year transition period before products can be labeled as certified organic.
These challenges can create financial insecurity. Growers may also have difficulty acquiring reliable information on organic farming. For example, there is only minimal information available on production costs - essential knowledge for making farm management decisions. 11
Linda Edwards grows organic apples in the BC interior. When making the transition to organic production, she and her partner were catapulted into a crash course on everything to do with compost - what compostable materials work best for their operation, where to source them, what quantities to apply and how to monitor composting progress.
"Thirteen years later we're still learning," says Edwards. "Every batch of compost is different. It's not like adding a specified amount of commercial fertilizer; it isn't an exact science. It's a never-ending learning process."
After transition, organic farming can bolster the farmer's bottom line. Direct sales of local organic produce may return up to 80 cents of each food dollar directly to the farmer. This compares well with the 19 cents received on average by conventional farmers trading bulk commodities. 12 Indeed, an October 2000 report written for the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Service speculated that organic products' premium prices might save the family farm. 13
The development of organic processing in Canada has also been slow because of the inadequate supply of domestic organics. According to Robert Beauchemin of La Meunerie Milanaise, a Quebec City-based organic grain processor, the two most difficult challenges he faces are a lack of organic, non-genetically modified (GM) processing ingredients, and sharply increased demand.
For example, it has been difficult to find non-GM sources of cornstarch. Organic flax is also in short supply, and the price has tripled in the past few years due to the combination of low yields (from bad weather) and increased demand. In addition, the entry of large corporate players into the organic processing market may drive down consumer prices and squeeze out many processors. China is poised to enter the organic market, and there is a fear that they will offer such low prices to retailers that many growers and processors will not be able to compete.
Global markets
Low prices aren't the only problem with the growing global trade in organics. Food grown by an organic farmer and sold at a local farmers' market, at the farm gate or to local restaurants eats up a comparatively small amount of fossil fuel from transportation, refrigeration and packaging. Not so for organic Hawaiian papayas refrigerated and shipped to Toronto in mid-winter. Nor for organic TV dinners, whose certified organic ingredients may be grown in several different countries.
A case study by the UK-based Elm Farm Research Centre found that a basket of 26 organic foods imported to Britain may have traveled 240,000 km. 14 Lawrence Woodward, director of the centre, believes that organic certification schemes should enshrine a "proximity principle" in their standards, strengthening support for local economies, and reducing the energy-intensity of transportation and packaging. 15
Also absent in organic standards are any requirements for enhancing biodiversity. Without formal requirements for habitat preservation and farming practices that enhance biodiversity, there is little, say critics, to stop a monoculture, fence-row-to-fence-row farm from being certified organic.16 The International Federation of Organic Movements recently requested proposals to develop biodiversity standards for organic production, and has been working internationally with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature for several years on these issues.
Neglect of these core environmental principles is leading to questions about the entire certification system. Some farmers in both Canada and the US are letting go of the word "organic", forgoing the certification process, and primarily selling their produce at local farmers' markets and through Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). CSA farms require their customers or shareholders to subscribe for a year, a season or a month at a time, paying up front for a fresh supply of produce.
These changes are driven in part by farmers' beliefs that the word "organic" has been devalued by the entry of corporate players. But additional motivations include a desire for more intimate trading relationships with their customers, and the increasing costs of certification.
Future directions
Others are arguing that the organics movement must have an active hand in deciding the future of organics in Canada, rather than simply letting market forces and existing government approaches determine its fate.
"Ensuring adequate domestic production and healthy local markets is key," says Rod MacRae, who along with Christianson, Beauchemin and two other Canadian organics leaders recently prepared a strategic plan for the sector. 17
The plan attempts to chart a successful course for the future of organics in Canada, including increased Canadian organic production, particularly for domestic use; a healthy income for all organic producers; affordability of organic food for all Canadians; and a robust organic processing sector.
Supportive government policies are important, but many initiatives can be pursued by organic producers themselves. For example, local markets for organic produce can be encouraged through "buy local organic" campaigns.
One of the best examples of a "buy local organic" campaign is the very successful Marin Organics label from Northern California. In addition to complying with national organic standards, and additional guidelines regarding soil conservation and habitat enhancement for wildlife, produce sold using the Marin Organic label must be produced in Marin County, with some small percentage of ingredients allowed to originate elsewhere.
Another suggestion by MacRae and his colleagues involves the creation of incubator kitchens, where new businesses unable to afford the cost of equipping a full kitchen can develop their food-based businesses by sharing space and equipment.
Co-operatives were an early manifestation of the organic movement's search for alternatives to the conventional food system, and were particularly successful in areas where farmers and consumers lived in close proximity. Since most co-ops are community and regionally based, their investment and surplus revenue stay within the local community. The co-op movement estimates that every dollar invested in a local co-op has a multiplier effect of five dollars for the community. 18 But nowadays, with some notable exceptions, there are few natural food co-ops left in the country, and few new ones developing.
More collaboration among local producers, processors and consumers could not come too soon. There is concern that the growing organic sector will mimic the structure of the conventional food sector, with high ownership concentration in retail markets, vertical integration and export-based regional niches. And while supermarkets appear to be making some effort to buy local organic produce, their organic products are accumulating just as many travel points as their conventional counterparts.
The concerns and values that triggered the development of organic agriculture in the first place are clearly being tested by its seeming success. That original vision saw success not only as commercial expansion, but as the expansion of a civic dialogue focused on bringing sustainability and social justice to the food system. It is a vision characterized by caring and just relationships to local places, and to human beings. If the organic industry cannot retain at least a decent measure of this vision, then its commercial success will ring hollow, and render organic food as transitory and expendable as any other link in the industrial food chain.
Vijay Cuddeford is a writer and researcher on environmental issues, with a particular emphasis on food systems. He lives in North Vancouver, BC, Canada.
See also Who Owns What - corporate ownership of organic companies
Notes
1 Roper Starch Research, quoted in T. Peterson, "Climbing on the Organic Gravy Train," Business Week (August 21, 2001).
2 M. Pollan, "How Organic Became a Marketing Niche and a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry," The New York Times Magazine (May 13, 2001).
3 D. Kosub, "Supermarkets Can Help the Organic Sector," Canadian Grocer (September 2002), p.16.
4 L. Baker, "The Not-so-sweet Success of Organic Farming," Salon.com www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/29/organic/index2.html, (July29, 2002, accessed: August 4, 2003).
5 R. MacRae, R. Martin, A. Macey, R. Beauchemin, and R. Christianson, "A National Strategic Plan for the Canadian Organic Food and Farming Sector," www.organicagcentre.ca/reportfinal.pdf, (March 28, 2003, accessed: August 4, 2003), p. 15.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., p. 18.
8 A. Macey, "Canadian Organic Statistics," Eco-Farm and Garden (Winter 2003), p. 49.
9 Ibid.
10 Market and Industry Services Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, "Canada's Organic Industry," http://ats-sea.agr.ca/supply/e3313.pdf, (no date, accessed: August 4, 2003).
11 This challenge is being addressed. The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada is developing organic market information, including current pricing and cost of production templates. The efforts of a growing number of organic organizations, including Canadian Organic Growers, Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network, Tables Filiéres Biologique and the Certified Organic Association of BC, should also be recognized, both in this regard and for promoting organic principles and educating farmers about organic practices.
12 US Department of Agriculture figure quoted in A. D. Heald, "Changes in Consumer Demand Affect Farmer's Share of Food Dollar," University of Kentuky News Release, www.ca.uky.edu/agc/news/2002/Jul/consumer.htm, (July 21, 2002, accessed: August 4, 2003).
13 Market Research Centre and the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, "The Natural/Organic Food Market in the United States," www.agrenv.mcgill.ca/agrecon/ecoagr/misc/e3164.htm, (October 2000, accessed: August 4, 2003).
14 Sustain/Elm Farm Research Centre, "Eating Oil - Food in a Changing Climate," www.sustainweb.org/pdf/eatoil_sumary.PDF, (December 2001, accessed: August 4, 2003).
15 Ibid.
16 M. Clark, cited in L. B. DeLind, "Transforming Organic Agriculture into Industrial Organic Products: Reconsidering National Organic Standards," Human Organization, 39:2 (Summer 2000), pp. 198-208.
17 MacRae, et al., "A National Strategic Plan" [note 5].
18 Ontario Co-operative Association, Introduction to Co-ops and the Co-operative Movement (Guelph: Ontario Co-operative Ass., undated).
Follow up
The Canadian Organic Growers publishes an organics directory and has extensive resources for growers and organics advocates: www.cog.ca
Organic Agriculture Centre for Canada maintains a comprehensive list of current research on organics in Canada: www.organicagcentre.ca
