Challenges, Threats and Opportunities for Sustainable Agriculture, Part II

In North America, some 1.1 million hectares are certified organic, with 12,500 organic farmers in the USA doubling the organic acreage between l992 and l997. In 1999, the retail organic produce industry generated US $6 billion in sales. In California, organic foods are one of the fastest-growing segments of the agricultural economy, with retail sales growing at 20-25 percent per year for the past six years. But are these new organic farmers and associated industry following the original precepts of the pioneers? Or is organic farming being incorporated into the systems of intensified production, finance, management and distribution typical of conventional agriculture? Is organic agriculture replicating the conventional model that it so fiercely opposed?

There is no question that demand for organic food is increasing, but it seems confined to the rich and especially to populations of the industrialized world. As Third World countries enter the organic market, production is mostly for export and thus contributing very little to the food security of poor nations. As organic products are increasingly traded as international commodities, their distribution is slowly being taken over by the same multinational corporations that dominate conventional agriculture. Locally owned natural food stores and organic brands are becoming consolidated into national/international chains. It is possible that some of the above problems could have been minimized if the organic movement had not disregarded three important factors that now have come back to haunt them:

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