To Aggregate or Segregate – Is That The Question?

Amidst a host of rich and deep discussions at the Sustainable Food Laboratory summit this week in Oregon, we kept coming back again and again to a few underlying themes. The complex relationships among commodities, organic produce, price, and brand value was one of these touchstone issues.

Given the current structure of food and agriculture markets, organic costs more – across the entire supply chain from farm to table. Depending on the type of food, some of this added cost comes from the need to certify, track, and move products through distribution networks that are parallel with but not quite the same as the networks for conventionally grown products. In this regard, organic is segregated from mainstream produce.

Some consumers accustomed to paying lower prices for conventional food are increasingly willing to pay a premium for the value of ensuring that what they eat is closer to pure and unadulterated food. And businesses are eager to build brand equity, trust, loyalty, and gain access to this still small but rapidly growing market.

But if organic agriculture aims to ‘go mainstream,’ when does a segregated and ‘special’ product itself become a commodity? And if it does, does it thus transform and redefine the commodity market? “Mainstream,” implying a majority of consumers, may be less the issue than knowing what it takes to shift standard industry practice to a new level. And more on that shortly.

Dave Brewer, Emerson Dell Farm, explains his use of new seeding
techniques to an international delegation of business and NGO leaders participating
in the Sustainable Food Laboratory summit outside Portland, Oregon.