Dive Summary:
- Organic food producers are looking to China and India for organic soybeans and struggling to bring skeptical farmers on board as the Farm Belt struggles to keep up with consumer demand, as the Organic Trade Association reports that the U.S. market for organic foods has grown 35% in the past five years to $29 billion.
- Organic supplies for animal feed in the organic meat and dairy market are limited in the U.S., and total U.S. imports of organic soybeans doubled last year and are expected to exceed $100 million this year.
- Some U.S. corn and soybeans farmers are going back to using pesticides and processed fertilizer, with fewer adding organic acres, and some food makers are also concerned that imports could turn off consumers driven by a "locally grown" mentality.
From the article:
... "We are not keeping up. You have seen a slowdown in the transition of acres," said George Siemon, chief executive of Organic Valley, the largest cooperative of organic farmers in the U.S. Limited new supplies, he added, mean its dairies pay higher prices for feed, making producers less profitable as organic retail prices can only climb so high. ...
