The first organic produce didn't look terribly appetizing. Even Robert Crumb couldn't have drawn an uglier potato than the ones at the earliest organic food stores. The naturally hip bought organic food because it was good for them, not because it was pretty.

Apples with worms, yams shaped like carrots, carrots so scrawny they looked like orange chopsticks... Mr. Natural's followers must have been high to eat that stuff. Okay, they might have been that sometimes, but as interest in a healthy life broke out of its hippie confines, so did the market for palatable organic food.

After decades of neglect during times of industrial development, sustainable farming began anew during the 1960s. Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, about the dangers of pesticides in the food supply, captured the public's and President Kennedy's attention. But it wasn't until the late-'80s, spurred by alarms raised by the Nation Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a famous 60 Minutes report about alar in apples, that the market for organic products, especially produce, saw its sharpest rise. More and more people became concerned about the state of their food, and they turned to organic products.

Before they evolved into Eugene, Oregon's legendary Oasis Market, Annie Falkerson and Doug Brown started Red Barn, an organic grocery store that opened in 1983 in what she refers to as "the anarchist part of town," in Eugene. The Falkersons took their lead from Real Foods in California, and worked with local farmers, encouraging them to grow organic produce. "Real Foods was so great because they went directly to the farmer," Annie says. "We put a face on the farmer and introduced him to his customers." They even wrote a column in the local free paper about local farmers and specialty items they would sell in the store.

Then came one of the largest personalities and a pioneer in organic foods, Kristie Knoll founder of Knoll Farms. She has taken her business "beyond organic" into truly whole foods. "Any smart farmer will educate their customers," she says.

"We started out planting our own food, going from a 50' by 150' lot in Southern California to, well, a really, really big garden," says Knoll. As fruit began to fall to the ground she decided to make a business out of growing. "We thought to ourselves, 'Didn't we used to pay a lot for this stuff?' So we took it to our local farmer's market," she remembers.

There she made contacts with grocers, restauranteurs and people who wanted only the best organic produce on their premises. Today Knoll Farms supplies some of the best restaurants in Northern California, including the world-famous Chez Pannisse.

Contact with the grower is a large part of the appeal and the drive for natural foods suppliers, restaurant owners and shoppers. According to Jake Lewin of California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) organic produce makes up 5% of the total produce sales in the US.

That may not seem like much, but according to the Economic Research Service (ERS), that's almost $8 billion [$8 billion what? Industry? A year? In California only?] Much of that is through direct sales. (For the year 2000. This is the most recent information available from ERS, the economic dept. of the US Department of Agriculture, updated as of June 24, 2003.)

"One of the most striking differences between conventional and organic food marketing is the use of direct markets, such as farmers' markets, farm stands, roadside stands, farm subscriptions and mail-order sales," says Lewin. Note that the language is outdated-mail-order includes internet sales. [So when did he say that? Why is that quote included, if it's out of date?] (In many industries, including publishing, the term "mail order "continues to be used rather than the equally inaccurate "direct marketing." Government bureaucracies are notoriously slow in adopting accurate or current terminology. I used the term the ERS uses.)

California has led and continues to lead the market in organic research, production and consumption. There's more money here to invest, raise and purchase organic products, but there's also more competition. [Is that a fair assessment? Is it purely about money, or does a health-conscious society play into that?] (I would like to have gone into this more fully, but it would add at least three more paragraphs, and I was limited to under 1000 words. California has the sixth largest ecomony in the world, so there is a lot of money here. As for an assessment of health conscientiousness, that's a whole essay itself.)

Farmers markets have sprung up all over California where producers entice customers to sample wares, then tell people where their products can be purchased on days the market is closed. The USDA began tracking the number of farmers markets in 1994. Back then there were about 1,755 farmers' markets in the US. [in California alone? Or across the US?]. By 2000 there were 2,863. No doubt that now, in 2005, that number is higher still. [What is the number? What does this mean? That growers are supplying direct to public? That there are more growers?]

The terms "organic," "natural" and "whole," have become keywords in marketing campaigns rather than well defined terms. The 1979 Organic Foods Act came out of efforts of the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) [to do what? What did it achieve?]. (The CCOF was founded to create a definition of and to regulate organic foods.) Spurred forward by a coalition of organic farmers, consumers and environmental organizations, the 1990 Farm Bill contained the Organic Foods Production Act which sought to provide both meaning an regulatory value to the title, "organic."

Despite pressure from outside the organic industry, in 2000 the USDA incorporated most of the National Organic Standards Board's (NOSB) recommendations into its final ruling. Some organic farmers, like Knoll Farms, think the standards are too low and the regulations toothless. Still, for consumers seeking healthier foodstuffs, the label has more meaning than it did 20 years ago.

This hasn't prevented misuse or downright lying, but as long as people continue to choose food that has been grown, raised and made according to a philosophy that considers human beings part of the larger ecosystem, the term "organic" will influence their buying decisions. [where's the rest of this sentence?]. Most organic food marketing, even by the major players like Whole Foods, is personal and direct. Using the current version of "word-of-mouth," link-by-email, technology, like direct email campaigns and targeted merchandising, allows rather than forces customers to choose cleaner food. Part of that hippie mentality perhaps, but being connected to customers and to a philosophy breeds trust and patronage.

Customer education has been key to organic marketing. The more people know about general health, the more they turn toward organic foods and products. As Mr. Natural might say, keep on truckin'.

from Natural Food Net print and on-line, July 2005