--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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,
I buy my organic whole milk at Wal-Mart (Horizon brand) at about $1.00 a gallon cheaper than the local Albertson's offers it... > 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/
