Consumer Demand for Organic Food

Price (whether the market likes to admit it or not) really is controlled by consumer demand for products and services. When demand falls, price also falls. When demand increases, price also increases. It’s a simple formula that isn’t very easily manipulated (although the oil companies are doing a pretty good job of manipulating it at the present, but that’s another article). We’re talking about organic food and the demand for it.

Today all health food stores and most herbal medicine stores carry some organic food items. Big chain grocery stores are also beginning to carry a line of organic products as well. The reason that more retailers are carrying organic products is because more consumers are demanding organic products. And, of course, the price is growing up. Price is going up because demand has increased and supply has not. There is less product desired by more people. Big demand + small supply = high prices.

I also like to think that people are just getting smarter when it comes to food choices. We’ve become a weight-conscious nation. You can hardly find a person who doesn’t know what calories, carbohydrates, and proteins are. Even little kids know the difference between saturated fat and unsaturated fat. Now the population is becoming more and more aware of how the food on grocery store shelves is produced. The problems with contaminated products from China raised awareness, I think, and that’s a good thing. (Not the contaminated products, but the awareness of the contaminated products.)

There is a rule, however, that says that what goes up must also come down. As more and more people demand organically produced food, more and more producers of food will choose to grow their products using organic methods. As more supply becomes available, the prices will go
down. It’s going to take a while, though.

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Organic Food Stores

All stores that sell organic food and organically produced products are not created equal. There are a couple of things that you need to know before your first shopping trip to a store that advertised organic food and other “green” products.

First, the term “organic” does not mean exactly what you would think that it means. A product that is labeled “organic” may not mean that it is totally organic. Learn to recognize these terms:

*  “Certified Organic”: The “certified organic” label means that the product has been produced adhering to the organic standards mandated by the government of the United States.

*  “Organic”: The label “organic” means that the product contains at least 95% organic materials. Foods that are imported from abroad, for example, may be labeled “organic” if they meet the organic standards of their country of origin. But that doesn’t mean that those standards are as stringent as the standards of the United States. There is a big variation between organic standards from country to country.

*  “100% Organic”: This is a label that is sometimes put on single-ingredient products like apples or oranges. It simply means that the fruit or vegetable was grown without the use of chemicals.

*  “Made with organic ingredients”: This term means that 70% of the ingredients are organic. The claim can appear on the front of package but must name the specific ingredients.

*  “Contains organic ingredients”: This term means that the product contains less than 70% organic ingredients.

 

Labels can be deceiving. You have to understand the language and the labeling so that you know exactly what you are buying. There are fines and penalties for mislabeling products as organic when they are in fact not organic.