Consumers Catching Onto the Organic Cause : Health conscious baby boomers are buying chemical-free produce. Where the money goes, industry is sure to follow.
George Kalogridis, a Ventura County farm manager and an officer of the Organic Food Producers Assn. of North America, has a vision for the Ojai Valley. “My long term goal in the next dozen years is to see all the commercial agriculture in the Valley being farmed organic,” he said.
To promote the organic cause, he has leased acreage at Happy Valley Ranch, which was formerly devoted to the conventional cultivation of walnuts. The farm will now produce organic apples, pears and plums. In addition to providing healthy food and making money, Kalogridis said that this kind of farming “enhances the soil and cleans up runoff into the Ventura River.”
Is he just a dreamer? Well, Kalogridis has won some of these battles before. While at Earth Best Baby Food in Colorado, he pushed for and received a U.S. Department of Agriculture “organic” label, the first of its kind approved by the federal agency.
“People think that organic growers are just a bunch of hippies out standing in the field with nothing to offer,” he said, “but now organics is a real business.”
(Earthwatch recently reported how major chains like Ralphs are getting into the business.)
It wasn’t always thus, Kalogridis said, citing a legacy of consumer dissatisfaction. “The stuff was so ugly no one would buy it.”
Nowadays, the looks of the produce has improved and prices are now competitive. Sales have risen because baby boomers, driven by their own rising health consciousness, have discovered that organic produce often tastes better.
“It’s taken almost five years to come back . . . but now the business is growing over 20% a year.”
He cited as examples several successful Ventura County wholesale growers--Oxnard’s Dean Walsh, as well as Tom Wilson and John Wise of Fillmore--who have stayed in the business through thick and thin, improving their growing techniques.
“Even with the bad weather, Walsh was able to grow the best-tasting strawberries in the county,” Kalogridis said.
According to the trade publications Organic Grower, Natural Foods Merchandiser and others, the growth curve of the business--23% annually for the last five years--is piquing the interest of agricultural business investors.
Since 1990, produce certified “organic” by the state of California--one of eleven states that does so--seems to have taken on the cachet of a consumer product with a designer label.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the World Resources Institute, a body squarely in the the pro-environmental camp, recently came out with a report showing that not only growers and consumers but taxpayers would profit if agribusiness became more organic.
You see, farm subsidies, which even the conservatives are lobbying against, are largely used to grow crops--such as wheat, corn, sorghum, cotton, barley--that use large quantities of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Unsubsidized acres, said the study, are more often planted with soil-building crops, like soybeans and alfalfa. In essence, the federal farm subsidies have had the effect of promoting the use of chemicals and pesticides. Even if the feds stop writing checks, Ventura County farmers will suffer little, according to Kalogridis. The county’s long record of integrated pest management and recent expansion of organically certified acreage, make it a place likely to experience prosperity despite federal budget cutting.
“The numbers of organic acres around here and nationwide are going to increase dramatically--doubling in five years--to meet the demand inherent in a 20% growth market,” said Kalogridis.
He said the area already has a major sales tool in its very name. To Kalogridis and others, “Ojai Valley Organic Produce” has a nice ring.
Kalogridis is optimistic about the future “greening” of commercial agricultural land in these parts. And to the doubters he says, “The more they laugh at us the more money we’ll make.”
Details
* FYI: For a copy of “Growing Green: Enhancing the Economic and Environmental Performance of U.S. Agriculture”--a WRI Publication--$16.95--call (800) 822-0504.
