12 CapitalPress.com
February 17, 2017
Organic products make up nearly 5 percent of U.S. food sales
But Mark Kastel, co-di-
rector and senior farm policy
analyst, said Cornucopia’s
message is more nuanced
than “big is bad.”
“The issues are not cor-
porate scale, they are about
corporate ethics,” he said.
“This is a values-based in-
dustry. It’s grown to $43
billion (in sales) because
consumers wanted an alter-
native to standard practices
in growing agricultural com-
modities and in processing,
too.
“If you respect the wish-
es and values of consumers,
there is money to be made
here and profit to made here
at the farm gate and in the
boardroom.”
ORGANIC from Page 1
As the Costcos, Wal-Marts
and Krogers of the world
continue to enter the organic
market, “Are they really con-
cerned with what we’re doing,
or is it a marketing opportuni-
ty?” Lively said.
Main disagreements
There are other issues out
there, of course. Producers
disagree over the proposed or-
ganic checkoff, for example,
and whether a “transitioning
to organic” label is proper for
growers who are headed that
way but aren’t yet certifi ed.
And although organic
product sales grew 11 percent
to reach $43.3 billion in 2015,
and have undoubtedly topped
that in the interim, the number
of organic farmers has actual-
ly dropped. Organic products
now make up nearly 5 percent
of U.S. food sales, but organic
acreage is less than 1 percent
of U.S. cropland, according
to the Organic Trade Associ-
ation.
It appears millennials, the
18 to 34 age group, account
for more than half of organ-
ic purchases. That means a
lot of people still aren’t con-
vinced they should pay more
for something that often looks
and tastes the same as conven-
tional vegetables, fruit, grains
and meat.
“It would be shortsighted
if we strive only to fi ll the
shopping baskets of millen-
nials and be happy at that,”
warned Drew Katz, who co-
ordinates farm transitions for
Oregon Tilth, an organic cer-
tifi cation group.
But it’s creeping bigness
that seemed to bother many of
the 1,100 growers, processors
and activists who attended
the three-day Organicology
conference and trade show in
Portland earlier this month.
One of the panel discussions
was even titled, “Challenging
the Empire: Forming a Rebel
Alliance.”
The rebels might have rea-
son to worry. Phil Howard,
a Michigan State Universi-
ty professor, has tracked the
acquisitions of organic oper-
ations by the biggest “Death-
stars” in America’s food sys-
tem.
Organic activists can recite
some of them from memory:
General Mills now owns An-
nie’s Homegrown and seven
other organic brands. Co-
ca-Cola owns Odwalla and
Pepsi owns Naked Juice. Kel-
logg owns Morning Star and
Kashi, plus two other brands.
J.M. Smucker bought R.W.
Knudsen, Millstone, San-
ta Cruz Organic and Enray.
Food giants Foster Farms, Ty-
son, Hormel and Nestle also
own several organic brands.
Costco helped another
company buy 1,200 acres in
Mexico, and will use it to sup-
ply its membership warehouse
stores with organic products.
Wal-Mart barged into or-
ganics 10 years ago, vowing
it would bring cheaper organ-
ic food to the masses. Crit-
ics soon alleged Wal-Mart’s
organics were coming from
factory farms and from China,
with its checkered food safety
and regulatory history.
‘In this together’
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
A producer sells jars of organic, raw milk feta cheese at a Portland farmers’ market in this 2015 photo. Despite fears of “Big Ag” taking
over organics, industry observers believe small producers will continue to fi nd a niche.
U.S. organic sales
(Billions of dollars, annually*)
Organic non-food
Organic food
was also speaking on behalf
of the Department of Natural
Resources, Department of Fish
and Wildlife, Parks and Recre-
ation, and the Recreation and
Conservation Offi ce.
The state Farm Bureau’s
director of government rela-
tions, Tom Davis, said public
ownership has cut into private
farmland.
“To provide those outdoor
recreational opportunities, it
does come at a cost to our rural
economies, specifi cally to ar-
eas of the state where agricul-
ture is king,” he said.
“We believe the Legislature
and natural resource agencies
must determine when enough
is enough. When do we have
enough land?” Davis said.
“I think they’ve purchased
enough already.”
DNR, WDFW and state
Parks own 6.4 million acres, or
about 14 percent of the state,
according to a 2014 state land
inventory.
The federal government
39.1
35.1
Source: Organic Trade Association,
2016 Organic Industry Survey
Capital Press graphic
23.2 24.3
14
13.3
26.1
19.4 21.6 22.5 24.1
16.6
28.5
31.5
39.8
35.9
32.3
29
26.3
18.2
15.7
*Figures are rounded
2005
’07
’09
’11
’13
2015
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Gina Colfer, key account manager with Wilbur-Ellis, says the
organic marketplace has room for producers of all sizes.
Online
https://msu.edu/~howardp/
OrganicJan16large.jpg
Price check: organic vs. conventional
Non-discount prices for organic foods versus their conventional
counterparts at select Portland-area groceries.
Trader Joe’s
Item
Organic
Conventional
$0.29
$5.99
$3.99
$3.99
$0.19
$3.49
$2.99
$2.49
Item
Organic
Conventional
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs (lb.)
Corn puff cereal (per ounce)
Turkey burger patties (lb.)
Red leaf lettuce (bunch)
Honeycrisp apples (lb.)
$5.99
$0.42
$10.99
$1.99
$3.29
$3.99
$0.27
$4.50
$0.99
$2.49
Organic
Conventional
$7.99
$0.10
$5.99
$3.99
$4.79
$5.99
$6.99
$0.06
$1.99
$1.99
$2.79
$5.69
Bananas (each)
2% milk (gallon)
Dried mango slices (pkg.)
Brown eggs (dozen)
QFC
Safeway
Item
Ground beef (lb.)
Apple juice (per ounce)
Seeded bread (loaf)
Yellow onions (3 lb. bag)
Pre-made tea (jug)
Unsalted butter (pkg.)
NOTE: Portland-area prices as of Feb. 5-8, excluding membership card discounts.
Eric Mortenson and Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Food writer Michael
Pollan said the company’s
low-price promise “virtually
guarantees that Wal-Mart’s
version of cheap, industrial-
ized organic food will not be
sustainable in any meaningful
sense of the word.”
Meanwhile, the Washing-
ton Post reported Feb. 9 that
mass-market retailers now
account for 53 percent of or-
ganic sales and that Whole
Foods, one of the pioneering
WDFW has acquired most of state-owned land
LAND from Page 1
$43.3 billion: Up
10.8% from 2014
“To provide those outdoor recreational
opportunities, it does come at a cost to our rural
economies, specifi cally to areas of the state
where agriculture is king.”
Tom Davis, Idaho Farm Bureau director of government relations
owns 12.7 million acres, or 28
percent, a fi gure that has risen
only a little since Washington
State University did a survey
in 1983. Meanwhile, state
ownership has increased by
about 440,000 acres.
WDFW has acquired most
of the new state-owned land
and now owns 622,343 acres,
according to the 2014 report.
WDFW for 2017-19 has
proposed buying or securing
conservation easements for
another 2,468 acres throughout
the state.
WDFW dropped plans to
buy 8,102 acres because either
the landowner decided not to
sell or county offi cials protested
about losing tax revenue.
Davis called Okanogan
County in north-central Wash-
ington the “poster child” for
the dangers of losing private
land.
Fifty-eight percent of the
county is owned by federal,
state and local governments.
Davis said increasing public
ownership could undermine ag-
riculture. According to the Em-
ployment Security Department,
agriculture generates more jobs
than any other sector, employ-
ing 34 percent of the county’s
workforce.
“We must be more careful
about how the state purchases
land in these rural counties,”
Davis said.
Chelan Republican Mike
Steele, whose district includes
part of Okanogan County,
said recreation sites draw dol-
lars into the county, too.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Organic greens bask in the sun
at a Sherwood, Ore., farm in this
2015 photo. Organic product
sales exceed $43 billion annually,
a fact that’s caused big compa-
nies to jump into the market.
organic chains, is closing nine
smaller, older stores and only
opening six.
Soul vs. integrity
Brian Baker, a Eugene,
Ore., organic consultant who
moderated the “Empire”
panel discussion at Organi-
cology, said it’s not the soul
of the industry he’s worried
about, but rather its integrity.
“My point was that corpo-
rations that enter the organic
sector through the acquisi-
tion of organic enterpris-
es behave differently from
operations that have gone
through the hard work of
transition or have practiced
organic production and han-
dling from the beginning,”
he said in an email.
Conventional food cor-
porations generally don’t
understand what it takes to
become organic, Baker said.
They know the organic sec-
tor is growing and sells at a
premium price, but lack or-
ganic production experience
and don’t have a first-hand
understanding of organic
standards.
“The concern is partic-
ularly acute if the corpora-
tions behave as if the rules
that applied to the compa-
nies they acquired do not
apply to them,” Baker said.
While some attending Or-
ganicology hold tight to the
“purity” of the movement’s
hippie,
back-to-the-land
origin, as one observer de-
scribed it, others are seeking
a better balance.
Values-based
The Cornucopia Insti-
tute, based in Wisconsin,
has served as a watchdog on
organic issues, battling the
USDA, the Organic Trade
Association and corporations
such as Wal-Mart when it be-
lieves the spirit or letter of or-
ganic guidelines are violated.
Gina Colfer, a key ac-
count manager with Wil-
bur-Ellis in Salinas, Calif.,
is on the frontlines as a big,
conventional ag company
transitions itself to join the
organic marketplace.
Colfer, with experience in
agronomy, pest control and
food safety, was working for
Earthbound Farm, which it-
self had grown from a small
startup farm to a national
organic producer, when Wil-
bur-Ellis came calling.
Wilbur-Ellis has been
around nearly 100 years, and
provides fertilizers, pesti-
cides, seed and crop moni-
toring services to farmers in
the West and into the central
states. Growers began ask-
ing Wilbur-Ellis reps about
organics, and the company
decided it didn’t want to get
left behind, Colfer said.
“We didn’t want to tell
our growers we didn’t
know,” she said.
She was brought on board
to help growers answer those
questions and become organ-
ic producers. She offers op-
tions and advice on methods,
employing what she calls a
whole systems approach.
“We want to help these
growers learn that you’re
not going to spray your way
out of a problem,” she said.
“You have to address the
soil, and build soil health
first and foremost.”
Other things follow, like
improving pollinator habitat
by planting native, perennial
flowering plants and faster
growing annuals in strategic
areas.
Growers who follow a
whole systems approach, no
matter their size, advance or-
ganics, she said.
“For me, I look at the
greater good,” Colfer said.
“If we can keep more syn-
thetic pesticides and fertil-
izers out of the environment,
it’s a win-win for every-
one. Building soil health,
I think, crosses over all
lines.”
And having organic prod-
ucts in larger marketplaces,
she said, opens opportunities
for consumers who might
not otherwise be able to buy
organics.
“We’re all in this to-
gether,” Colfer said. “Peo-
ple, planet and profit.
All three of those have
to be in place for it to be
sustainable.”
Oregon’s seed pre-emption law
doesn’t apply to Jackson County
GMO from Page 1
genes, which threatens markets
for those farmers. The federal
government doesn’t regulate
GMO crops once they’ve
been approved for commer-
cial use.
“We’re probably going to
see even more lax regulation,”
van Saun said.
Oregon’s seed pre-emption
law doesn’t apply to Jackson
County, which was already set
to vote on a GMO ban ballot
initiative when the state legis-
lation passed.
Voters approved the Jack-
son County ordinance, creat-
ing a “GMO-free seed sanctu-
ary” where seed crops can be
produced without the threat of
cross-pollination from biotech
varieties, said Elise Higley, di-
rector of the Our Family Farms
Coalition, which supported the
GMO ban.
“We’re in this unique eco-
nomic opportunity,” she said.
Supporters of HB 2469 ha-
ven’t given up on statewide
GMO regulations but they
hope the bill will provide lo-
cal control over biotech crops
until the Oregon Department
of Agriculture or lawmakers
decide to take action, said Ivan
Maluski, policy director of the
Friends of Family Farmers
nonprofi t.
“We have no expectation
the state of Oregon will move
forward on these types of poli-
cies,” he said.
Oregonians for Food and
Shelter, an agribusiness group
that supported the pre-emp-
tion bill, is disappointed that
biotech critics are still trying
to regulate what crops farmers
are allowed to plant, said Scott
Dahlman, its policy director.
Cities and counties aren’t
equipped to regulate crop pro-
duction, which is the province
of the Oregon Department of
Agriculture, he said.
The ODA hasn’t deter-
mined specifi c rules are neces-
sary for GMOs, which the fed-
eral government deregulates
after determining they pose no
greater risk than conventional
crops, Dahlman said.
Lawmakers never commit-
ted to statewide regulations
when passing the pre-emption
bill, he said. “There were no
promises I was aware of at the
time.”
Dahlman noted that the
seed pre-emption bill passed in
2013 not only protects GMOs
from a patchwork of local reg-
ulations, but also precludes
such rules for other crops that
may become unpopular in the
future.
Many of the same lawmak-
ers who voted in favor of the
pre-emption bill four years ago
still hold offi ce, so Dahlman
said he’s hopeful they won’t
support HB 2469.