Organic product sales flourish in the US

Global Business

Lithic Protein bars

Look up the word “organic” in the dictionary, it’s defined as relating to or derived from living matter. These days, organic food also means big business.

Organic product sales totaled more than $43 billion in 2015.

CGTN’s Hendrik Sybrandy reports from Colorado to understand why the industry is growing rapidly and to take a closer look at the organic food phenomenon in the U.S.

There’s been a gradual shift over the years in the types of food we eat and the beverages we drink. A company in Boulder, Colorado called Bhakti has benefited from that trend. Brook Eddy, the founder of Bhakti, tells his story.

“I just started playing around with spices and tea and made my own recipe on the stove, and would just sit and inhale and smell the spices and be reminded of India,” said Eddy.

Brook Eddy took that chai concept from her kitchen to the marketplace and now her company Bhakti, which relies on just five or six ingredients, counts the health-conscious among its main customers.

“They don’t want preservatives in their food, they don’t want GMO’s in their food,” said Eddy.

Dave Baugh, brought back an Asian tradition to the U.S after he served as a marine stationed in Asia. “Basically our story is rooted in my time as a Marine,” said Baugh.

Baugh discovered that bugs were a staple of people’s diets when he was stationed in Asia. So he developed an all-natural protein bar made of crickets. He is the co founder of Lithic Nutrition.

“It’s not a gimmick. It’s a credible protein that’s amino acid complete, it has more calcium per gram than milk, more iron than spinach and more B-12 and Omega 3 than salmon,” said Baugh.

Bhakti and Lithic, one established, one very new to the food scene, are the kinds of products that consumers are increasingly demanding. The organic industry grew over 10% in 2015, over three times as fast as the conventional food market.

The director of Colorado College Sustainability Ian Johnson, recognizes that people are becoming more health conscience in every facet of life.

“People are much more cognizant about their health, whether that’s health from air pollutants, water, chemicals and pesticides and the like on their foods,” said Johnson.

“Organic food is very popular. You know if you go to the supermarkets, there’s entire sections where there used to be just a small corner of the supermarket…It’s profitable,” continued Johnson.

France’s Danone’s $10 billion purchase of the U.S. organic food producer WhiteWave Foods is just the latest example of large companies moving into the organic space.


Brazil hopes agriculture industry can help sluggish GDP

In southeastern Brazil, it’s time to tend to the coffee plants. Drought this year has crippled coffee production and created financial hardship for many farmers, who have hopes of a better harvest next year.

CGTN’s Paulo Cabral reports from Sao Paulo.
Follow Paulo Cabral on Twitter @PCabralReporter

In 2015, agriculture was the only sector of Brazil’s economy to keep growing despite the recession in the country. But this year things are not looking good for farmers either.

Last year, Brazil’s GDP dropped by almost 4 percent with significant drops in industry down 6.2 percent, and services down 2.7 percent but growth by 1.8 percent in agriculture.

In the first three quarters of 2016 however, agriculture has taken a big hit. Agriculture diminished 6.9 percent, even more than industry which was down 4.3 percent, and services down 2.8 percent, contributing to reduce the overall GDP by 4 percent so far for the year.

The production of grains has been most affected. Crops like corn, rice and soybeans way down result in part, due to El Nino conditions that brought both drought and excessive rain, depending on the region.

Hopes are for a better 2017 and according to Fabio Ralston, Head of Commodities at Parallaxis Consultants, chances are looking good.

“The sector will grow again next year. We have a forecast for the soybean production of 102 million tons. That’s the record level Brazil ever produced. We also have a forecast for corn to increase about 25 percent for the next harvest,” Ralston said.