Conscious Choice: Organic Quick Facts

March 2000

Organic Quick Facts

by Tom Meier

Organic Is Booming

• Seventy-three percent of mainstream supermarket chains nationwide now carry some organic products. (Food Marketing Institute)

• Fifty-six percent of those who buy organic products get them from mainstream supermaket chains. (The Organic Consumer Profile, Hartman Group, 2000)

• The organic industry topped six billion domestically in 1999. (American Demographics)

• The organic industry has grown by at least 20 to 25 percent each year since 1990. The conventional grocery industry grows by 3 to 5 percent per year. (American Demographics)

• Fifty-seven percent of restaurants nationwide with entrées over $24 offer organic selections. And it’s offered it in 29 percent of restaurants where entrées average $15. (National Restaurant Association)

• Big companies, like Heinz, Gerber, and General Mills are entering the organic business. (Los Angeles Times)

• Seventy-five percent of food industry executives think that organic is the most promising business opportunity in their industry today. (Food Marketing Institute)

• Convenience foods are some of the fastest growing categories of organic food today. (Gene Kahn, CEO, Small Planet Foods)

• In China, organic is a $1.6 billion industry, and it’s been growing at an average of 41 percent per year for the last seven years — which is almost double the growth rate of organic in the United States. (Datamonitor)

• Europe and the United States are the two largest global markets for organics. Japan is third. Germany is by far the largest market in Europe, accounting for more than 35 percent of total European sales. (International Trade Centre: UN and wto Organic Food and Beverage: World Supply and Major European Markets market study)

And Did You Know...

• Texas has more certified organic acreage than any other state. In fact, approximately 10 percent of the nation’s total organic acreage is in Texas. (USDA)

• Most farmers convert to organic because it is a way for them to keep their farms viable. (Bob Scowcroft, Organic Farming Research Foundation)

• Eighty-seven percent of organic farms — even ones that supply big companies with ingredients — are small family farms, not corporate owned. (Third Biennial National Organic Farmers’ Survey — OFRF)

• Seventy-two percent of Americans reported they would eat seasonally and locally if it meant getting food with fewer pesticides; 57 percent said they’d accept higher prices for this food. (Consumer study funded by Philip Morris and American Farm Bureau Federation)

• So far the big players coming into the organic marketplace have not hurt the small family farmers — but actually helped them, because the big companies buy the majority of their organic supplies from small family farms. (Bob Scowcroft, Organic Farming Research Foundation)

• Companies like Whole Foods and Wild Oats buy much of their produce from local farmers and much of their dairy products from farmer co-ops. (Margaret Wittenburg, Quality Assurance Research Director for Whole Foods Market, Inc.)

• A fifteen-year study by Rodale Institute concluded that yields for organic crops were no smaller than for those farming with chemicals — and organic crops significantly decrease groundwater pollution. (Rodale Institute)

• A consumer group, the Organic Consumers’ Association (OCA), is lobbying the government to push for 30 percent of the nation’s farming to be done organically by the year 2010. (Ben Lilliston, Communications Director, OCA)

• Smaller regional operations have a much higher brand identity in their markets than national brands. In the recent Hartman consumer study, only 1 percent of people could name any national organic brands. (The Organic Consumer Profile, Hartman Group)

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