http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11712 [...]
* Organic Cow, founded by small New England organic dairy farmers, is now part of the Colorado-based Horizon, whose sales just topped $200 million annually and which controls 70% of the American organic milk market . Horizon Holding company was itself was acquired by the Dean Foods conglomerate in 2003. [...] Yet, in order to meet the increasing demand for organic food, production is increasing far beyond its original base. Sales of organic foods and beverages in the United States surpassed the $11 billion mark in 2002, and according to a 2003 survey sponsored by the Whole Foods retail chain, 54% of US consumers have tried organic foods and one third consumed more of them than in the previous year. America's mega-stories like Wal-Mart, Price Chopper and 7-Eleven are already in on the organic action, offering organic products on their shelves, and food corporations, such as agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland and Campbell's Soup, have added organic items to their product lines. The organic market in the United States is expected to reach $30.7 billion by 2007, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 21.4% between 2002 and 2007, according to the Datamonitor research firm. [...] The increasing level of consumer demand means boom times for U.S. organic farms. The state of Vermont, for example, had 78 organic certified producers in 1993, and by 2003 their number had grown to 289. Certified acreage in the state has grown from 23,638 in 2001 to 30,387 in 2003. In California, Certified Organic California Growers confirms that the state has 170,000 organically grown acres. At current growth rates, organic sales will constitute 10% of American agriculture by 2010. These skyrocketing growth rates convinced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to set national organic standards in October 2002, after 12 years of delays. While some organic advocates consider USDA recognition a triumph, according to Ronnie Cummins of the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association (OCA), the department set the standards largely at the request of agribusiness corporations and mass retailers. He believes they wanted uniform national standards to speed their entry into the organic market, replacing multiple state standards that made it more complicated for the chains who grow in one part of the country and sell at the opposite end of the nation. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
