Organic Food | featured news

Squeezable pouches of organic baby food are as omnipresent on some American playgrounds as runny noses, diaper bags and overpriced strollers. Organic baby food can cost up to twice as much as conventionally grown baby food, and it comes in such gourmet blends as “blueberry, oats and quinoa” and “ spinach, apple and rutabaga.”

Thanks to new research released this week by Stanford University, consumers now know that all of those sweet, red pieces of fruit – no matter how naturally or conventionally they were grown, and no matter how they are labeled – carry the exact same nutritional value. Forget: "Paper or plastic?" The question now: Will this revelation take a bite out of the $31 billion organic food industry?

Investors are gobbling up shares of pasta maker Annie's Inc., the latest sign of the pull of natural and organic foods for consumers. Best known for its signature macaroni and cheese with pasta shaped like rabbits, Annie's makes more than 125 organic and natural food products and is sold in more than 250,000 store locations, almost all in the U.S.

While many consumers prefer organic products, the cost, resources, and lower yields are such that scaling organic production is highly problematic, if not impossible.