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Quizz: Are you still buying as much organic food as before the recession?
August 25, 2009
As must know the organic food movement has been HUGE for a sold decade now.
The organic movement has been so strong because consumers are more in touch with what they eat and how it’s cultivated. Contrarily to conventional faming, organic farming strictly limits the use of artificial chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Antibiotics for animals are kept to an absolute minimum. Instead organic farming emphasizes farming methods such as crop rotation to keep the soil healthy and natural pest-control systems. Genetically modified crops are forbidden. Organic bodies also demand more space for animals and higher welfare standards.
The organic movement went from a grass route movement to a commercial movement since now you can buy StonyField Farm Organic products at Wal-Mart (the big daddy of conventionalism)!
In the past few years, the sale of organic foods has become equivalent to several billion dollars each year in countries like the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Australia. In the U.S. alone organic foods accounted for (before the financial crash) 3.5 per cent of U.S. food sales in 2008!
I’ve been wondering if all this gloom and doom talk has not affected the sales of organic food products. A recent article in Investors.com confirms that sales of organic foods at Whole Foods Markets have “receded as cash-strapped customers swap out pricey offerings for more value”.
Nielsen reported recently that: “The recession and the resulting uncertainty it has created among Americans has prompted most consumers to look at every dollar they spend,” said Director of Industry Insights, Tom Pirovano. “At this point, it appears that cost beats the potential benefits of organic products when shoppers head to the grocery store. It will be interesting to watch if sales of organic products rebound along with the economy, or whether that trend will be a victim of the vast changes affecting consumer behavior.”
The sad reality is that there are a lot of people who have lost their jobs since October 2008 and many people find themselves in a situation they’ve never (EVER) been before! Also, for the first time in history there are sooooooooo many people who have lost their homes or who are on the verge of losing their homes.
Since organic food products are more expensive than conventional foods and food prices have been creeping up, I wanted to know if my readers are still buying the same amount of organic foods as before, or if you’ve had to cut back on your organic food purchases or did you have to give up organic foods altogether.
I’d love to hear from you. I’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to fill out our poll below:
Photo by iLoveButter
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August 25th, 2009 at 12:11
According to the 2009 US Families’ Organic Attitudes and Beliefs Study, a joint study conducted by the Organic Trade Association and Kiwi Magazine, nearly three quarters (73%) of US families were found to have purchased at least some organic products over the past year, and 31% reported buying more organic foods than they were one year ago, suggesting that organic remains a priority for many parents in spite of the current economic challenges they face.
For more information on this study, please visit http://www.organicnewsroom.com/2009/06/ota_offers_groundbreaking_repo.html.