Major Food Brands Paying Farmers to Transition to Organic to Meet Consumer Demand

Cornucopia’s Take: The growing consumer hunger for organics has made organics a $43 billion a year business. As shortages appear, more farmers look to transition to organics. While they wrestle with changing agricultural practices, corporations are scrambling to find supplies – sometimes in the U.S. and increasingly from abroad.

Paying Farmers to Go Organic, Even Before the Crops Come In
The New York Times
by Stephanie Strom

DENAIR, Calif. — The last time Wendell Naraghi tried to make money from organic nuts, in the 1980s, he failed miserably.

“Basically, we stopped because no one paid me,” said Mr. Naraghi, whose father started the family’s large nut orchards here in the Central Valley in the 1940s. “There just was no market premium for organic.”

Today, the problem is turned upside down: Companies can’t get enough organic ingredients to satisfy consumer desire for organic and nongenetically modified foods. The demand for those crops outstrips the supply, leaving farmers like Mr. Naraghi racing to convert their land to organic production, an arduous and expensive process.

“Customers are asking for it,” said Mr. Naraghi, who is in the process of transitioning 300 of his 3,000 acres of orchards this year. “And we listen to our customers.”

Read the entire article.

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