Mass Produced Health
LONDONDERRY, N.H., Nov. 28, 2006 — -- Organic food is the fastest-growing segment of the food industry, leaving some organic food makers to make radical changes as they become more corporate and attempt to satisfy demand.
The word organic evokes a certain image: animals grazing on hilltops of pure clover and Earth-loving family farmers mixing small batches of goodness.
But that image is quickly changing as more companies that started down on the farm are part of multi-billion dollar conglomerates.
Stonyfield Farm sold $211 million worth of organic yogurt last year, but the company could sell twice as much if it could find enough ingredients.
The company charges about 30 percent more than its competitors per serving with the promise that everything inside is pure -- no hormones in the cow, no pesticides in the cow's food.
But Stonyfield Farm is finding it is increasingly difficult to satisty that credo and keep up with demand.
"Unless the big guys enter, it's never going to get to that point of promise or possibility. We can't just sit around in circles singing 'Kumbaya' and build an industry," said Gary Hirshberg, CEO and co-founder of Stonyfield Farm.
The former windmill maker said he's looking "everywhere" for organic milk, fruit and sugar including strawberries from China, apple puree from Turkey and blueberries from Canada.
If the organic dairy shortage continues, he'll ship powdered milk 9,000 miles from New Zealand to New Hampshire.
This environmentalist also worries about the food and labor standards in places like China.
"We had to take a long hard look and in fact, ultimately we had to hire three different auditors to go in and actually inspect … the fields," he said. "It wasn't enough for us to just depend on the USDA auditors."
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