Is the honeymoon over with organics?

"For those farmers, the promises of going organic — a steady paycheck and salvation for small family farms — have collapsed in the last six months. As the trend toward organic food consumption slows after years of explosive growth, no sector is in direr shape than the $1.3 billion organic milk industry. Farmers nationwide have been told to cut milk production by as much as 20 percent, and many are talking of shutting down.

“I probably wouldn’t have gone organic if I knew it would end this way,” said Mr. Preston, 53."

This is an excerpt from an article from the New York Times. It seems that the honeymoon with organics might be over, at least from the supplier side. It seems that demand is down and thus markets and distributors are scaling back on orders, leaving farmers - many of them who have just converted to producing organic - are left holding full cans of milk. While this article focuses on dairy, you can see how this situation could be reproduced throughout the agro-business industry with any products that use the organic label to sell their products at a premium. In economic downturns, it seems that all of the customers on the margins - the "organic is nice to have but not a way of life customers," likely a very large market and what has supported the rapid growth of organic farms in the past five years or so - well, in downturns, they seem to go away.

Thus, unfortunately, many small producers - many of the ones who saw organic production as the way to save their farms - are taking a boot in the butt for their decision to go green. Likewise, the credit crunch cannot help these cash-flow strapped small businesses. The article talks about a few ways that farmers are trying to address this issue, but outside of selling at losses or a rampant upswing in demand, it seems like some of these farms will be doomed.

One thing we all can do (if we have the luxury of having extra disposable income) is make sure that we all go out and support organic farms by buying the products. I think we can also help by going out there and buying local and supporting any local farmers who show up with organic products at farmer's markets. Grow that market and perhaps farmers can sell at lower prices, direct to the consumers, and still break even.

Finally, another, slightly unrelated thought. One of the big concerns with organic growing has always been how organic production will be able to satisfy worldwide food needs. While there is plenty of support for the notion that organic production done right can actually increase yields... let's not deal with that here. Instead, it seems the problem right now is not enough demand and wildly enthusiastic production. Perhaps as we begin to re-engage organic production around the world, we can use this as a lesson - we don't want farmers to attach ideas of bankruptcy and hardship with organic, but we also don't want to set small farmers on a path to destruction either. We have to grow the organic market, make organic more price competitive with non-organic products, and ensure that supply does not outstrip demand by too much.

Or is there another way?

Full Article from the NY Times Here