Article By Laura Batcha, Executive Director and CEO of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) for the GreenMoney Journal.
As more and more world attention focuses on threats from global warming and its impact on agriculture, organic production practices and principles are providing hope to an environmentally challenged planet.
Studies continue to mount showing that organic farms are able to support more species biodiversity than their conventional counterparts. In fact, in one of the latest studies, researchers from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland published findings in 2014 in the Journal of Applied Ecology showing that different agricultural methods affect the diversity of life on farms. Their research found that on average, organic farms support 34 percent more plant, insect and animal species than conventional farms. In addition, organic farms had 50 percent high diversity in pollinator species such as bees.
“Organic methods could go some way towards halting the continued loss of diversity in industrialized nations,” according to Sean Tuck of Oxford University’s Department of Plant Science, lead author of the study.
For farmers who diligently work the earth using organic practices—starting with rejuvenating and building healthy soils, this is not news. However, it is a message that they desire consumers, agricultural agents, and policymakers to comprehend.
Market Continues to Expand
The U.S. market for organic products, both food and non-food, totaled $35.1 billion in 2013, up 11.5 percent from 2012 sales and more than four times the $8.4 billion recorded in 2002, the year U.S. national organic standards were implemented. Currently, consumers may purchase organic products in most mainstream grocery stores throughout the country, at convenience and club stores, at farmers’ markets, through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations, in natural and health food stores and co-ops, in a growing number of eating establishments, online, at food trucks, and through home delivery.
Growth in organic product sales continues to outpace total sales of comparable conventional food and non-food items, which grew a total of only 3 percent in 2013, down from the 4 percent growth posted in 2012. Accounting for 92 percent of the organic market, organic food sales grew over 11 percent last year, while conventional food sales only experienced a growth of 3 percent. The growth of organic non-food sales also continues to outpace the conventional non-food market, with organic growing at 13 percent while conventional only increased 3 percent.
Read the full article here- http://www.greenmoneyjournal.com/june-2014/ota/
=====