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The Food and Fabric of America
Choosing foods produced by local and organic family farms has a direct impact on the health and economy of your community and region. Your participation in the local farm community offers many benefits, including stronger local economies, food security, quality of life, and sustainability. At Organic Valley, we support this model by organizing our cooperative of family farms into regional groups in order to deliver the healthy foods we produce to the nearest markets in each region.
The future we choose
Fact is, the consolidation and industrialization of America's agriculture over the last fifty years has dramatically reduced the vitality of our nation's rural communities. As rural economies and populations have diminished, so have their environments and cultures.[1]
Children from many farm families have left their communities in search of greater economic opportunity from careers other than farming. This leaves us to ask, who will grow food for America's next generation? Will it be a handful of agribusinesses that won't take responsibility for the environmental impact of their technologies? Will it be overseas farmers whose practices may be poorly regulated and who themselves may be unfairly paid? The 1266 farm families that cooperatively own Organic Valley have a better answer.
Farming for the next generation
Together with the community of 3 million American consumers who purchased organic foods in 2004, we are building a sustainable model of agriculture that offers renewed hope for both urban and rural communities that depend on safe food and safe farming. As stewards of our land and animals, we lead the way in defining and upholding the highest organic standards. We do it for our families and for yours.
At a time when megacorporations are taking over all sectors of our economy, especially farming, Organic Valley's cooperative approach to organic agriculture offers struggling family farmers a lifeline. Defying the trend that puts 219 small farmers out of business per day[2], Organic Valley farmers earned over 25 percent more than their conventional counterparts in 2004. The age range of our cooperative's membership also offers hope for the future. In a time when, according to the 2002 Farm Census, the average age of an American farmer is 55.3, Organic Valley is increasing its numbers of young farmers. More than 49 percent of our co-op members are now 45 years or younger.
At Organic Valley, we are committed to building a new generation of farming leadership. It is the new generation of young people getting into organic farming today who will have to fight to protect the purity of the organic mission and the health of our environment in the years to come. Working together with consumers, we can better the future of food.
1USDA National Commission on Small Farms, January 1998 report,
A Time to Act.
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/ag_systems/pdfs/time_to_act_1998.pdf
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2"Rethinking Agri-Culture as if the Real World Matters" Iowa State University, Prof. Jules Pretty, Oct. 20, 2003, Leopold Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (www.leopold.iastate.edu)
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