December 26, 2003

Potential Boost in US Organic Beef Demand

The U.S. mad cow scare could prove a boon to organic beef producers. Organic beef, which comes from animals fed only milk, grasses and grains from birth to slaughter, is now viewed as the healthier option.

U.S. organic beef standards, which took effect in October 2002, provide for certification of producers whose practices have passed muster with either a state or private inspector. The standards include an all-vegetable diet once the animal is weaned.

"We will now see a huge increase in the demand" for organic beef, which currently accounts for no more than 1% of U.S. beef sales, predicted Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, of Little Marais, Minn.

Chicago-based Dakota Beef Co. claims to be the nation's largest organic producer, with 25 farms and processors under contract to produce beef that will start showing up in national supermarket meat cases in 2004.

Spokesman Seldon Moreland wouldn't predict the sales impact of the mad cow news, pending confirmation of the Washington state case, but said: "I can 100% assure you that certified organic beef is free of possible infection from BSE."

The same claim is made by some non-organic producers, including Denver-based Coleman Natural Products Inc. Company chairman Mel Coleman Jr. said the company also insists on an all-vegetable diet but not on organic feed, which must be certified as free from herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Organic beef carries a premium price; organic ground beef, for example, is priced six to eight times higher at various outlets than the 68 cents a pound that supermarkets may charge for regular ground beef.

Some say the organic advocates are using the mad cow news to create panic over the food supply. The Center for Consumer Freedom, a coalition that includes mainstream restaurants and food producers, says the Organic Consumers Association is run by "radical social activists."

"These activists are clearly hoping to drive U.S. shoppers away from the grocery meat counter and toward more expensive organic and so-called 'natural' options," said David Martosko, research director for the center.