ORGANIC IN THE US:
A FIELD IN FLUX THE ORGANIC VEGETABLE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES IS A $2.2 BILLION MARKET. MADE UP OF COMPLEX VALUE CHAINS AND GUIDED BY THE NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM (NOP) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK, IT’S NOW FACING ITS BIGGEST CHALLENGES SINCE THE NOP’S INCEPTION BACK IN 2000. CHELSEY LENCZYK, ORGANIC MANAGER BEJO USA, EXPLAINS.
At its core, “organic” simply means “produced without the use of artificial agents”. But 20 years into its regulated life, the US organic market couldn’t be more complicated. Should hydroponics be allowed, or must a plant touch the earth’s crust? Is human capital being properly valued? Which breeding techniques should be grandfathered in for future varieties, and which disallowed? How can we close the loophole that allows conventional seed to be used to grow organic food? With a total organic industry of $55 billion, the US stands at a crossroads of morals and market value. The big question is: can we make a path down the middle?
Acreage The US has 2.2 million hectares of organic farmland, spread across 16,585 farms, and 1.4 million of those hectares are devoted to vegetable crops. Of this land, about 930,000 hectares were planted and harvested for sale in 2020. The states with the most organic acreage are California (with 391,000 hectares), Alaska (whose figure is not reported), Montana (144,000 hectares), New York (131,000 hectares) and Wisconsin (102,000 hectares).
Companies
While it isn’t possible to put land area to crop, the top-grossing organic vegetable commodities are lettuce, spinach, potato, tomato, carrot, onion, broccoli, sweet potato, cauliflower and celery.
Bejo USA and Vitalis are the top two breeding companies, interchanging position based on crop. The largest purchasers of organic seed in the dealer network are Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing and Seedway. The majority of seed goes to market growers in the 2- to 6-hectare range and is spread across 85 varieties in a diversity of crops, led by carrot and
In 2020, for all organic produce acreage, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported a spend on seed of $340 million for organic versus $329 million for non-organic.
To grasp why that’s a complex question, we need to understand the US organic market as it relates to seed.
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beet in terms of volume. The largest retail fresh market growers are Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms/Cal-Organic Farms. They purchase diverse seeds, with the highest volumes in radicchio, fennel, leeks, beets, and celery.
BEJO ORGANIC MAGAZINE
