All is good in the land of organic milk and honey once again.

Whole Foods Market stock has returned with a vengeance, climbing to near all-time highs after turning in its second strong earnings report in a row last Wednesday. Earnings per share of $0.46 beat expectations by a penny, and sales improved 10% to $4.67 billion as same-stores sales rose 4.5%, better than 3.1% in the previous period.To date in the current quarter, comps are up 5.1% as the momentum seems to be gaining.

Just a few months ago, analysts were decrying the end of Whole Foods' organic empire due to competition fromthe likes ofTrader Joe's, Wal-Mart , and Kroger , all of which have expanded into Whole Foods' territory. The retailer is no longer alone in the organic food space it pioneered, but it's found a way to get back to stable growth once again. Let's take a look at what the high-end grocer is doing right.

Lowering prices Facing competition from the low-priced big-box chains, the company long mocked as "Whole Paycheck" has responded as you might think it would. It lowered prices, primarily on produce, showing off its curb appeal. Whole Foods has generally rejected the standard supermarket strategy of luring customers in with discounts or a "loss leader," but cutting prices on produce, a staple product and a key differentiator against companies like Wal-Mart, seems like a smart way to drive traffic. Once in the store, those customers are more likely to spend on higher-margin items like prepared foods and luxury brands.

Founder and co-CEO John Mackey explained the strategy, saying,"Our value focus is on perishables, where we see opportunities to broaden our selection of products at entry-level price points. We are encouraged by the pricing experiments we are running in several markets, and if results continue to be positive, we expect to expand our test to more markets during the year."

The numbers proved that the decision to lower prices, which the company made last year, is helping to boost sales without sacrificing margins too much, as profits improved 5.7% in the quarter.

Reinforcing the brand Whole Foods launched its first national advertising campaign last year, called "Values Matter." The company ran TV commercials and ads on magazines and billboards showing images of livestock and bucolic farmsin an attempt to reinforce the brand's commitment to humanely and sustainably raised food, local farms, and fair labor practices.

The underlying message seems to be that Wal-Mart may be selling organic food, but the retail giant is vastly different from Whole Foods, which has been committed to natural and organic food since its inception. That's what it does because that's who it is, not because that's what consumers are demanding suddenly. In fact, the organic movement exists in large part because of Whole Foods. Co-CEO Walter Robb explained, "Natural and organic products are increasingly available, yet no one offers the shopping experience we offer. We hold the idea of 'food' to a higher standard."

While it's difficult to directly connect the improved performance with the ad campaign, as it often is with any form of marketing, the social media response to the campaign was strong, and it seemed to remind viewers how Whole Foods is different from would-be competitors.

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ORGANISERS of the Clarence Valley's Feast In The Field food event are looking for a wide range of producers and makers of local, native and organic food to participate in their April event.

One of the organisers Debrah Novak said the event would be gold for producers to network and learn about each other's industries.

"This is a networking opportunity for local producers and chefs to build relationships to develop and secure our local, organic and native food markets and to establish a supply chain," Ms Novak said.

Headline chef for the industry morning is Clayton Donovan whose aim is to inspire local chefs to include a wider variety of flavours in to their menus using local produce.

"This industry event connects educators with farmers, wholesalers and food creative," she said.

The organisers are also interested in food stories from the region.

"We have such a wonderful layer of world culture in the Clarence Valley and with that culture comes their food whose recipes still exist now," Ms Novak said.

One of the businesses that may attend the event is the Woombah Coffee growers.

Co-owner of the business Joy Phelps said their coffee trees were brought here over 100 years ago and those family members are still in Maclean today.

"These are great local stories connected to great local food and we want to see and hear more of that," Ms Novak said.

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Food producers preparing for a Valley feast

Source: thebittenword.com/ Flickr .

You've heard this stat before, but it's worth mentioning again: The United Nations has estimated that food production will need to nearly double from 2008 levels by the year 2050 to feed the world's growing population (nearly all from the least developed nations) and make up for shrinking agricultural land. That means that to boost yields and combat pests, farmers will need to increasingly rely on technology ranging from high-yield seeds to agricultural biotechnology to even the Internet of Things.

While progress is being made, consumers in many wealthy nations are demanding that their food be grown using organic farming principles. At a time when the world cannot falter on the path to increasing its food production, these habits can have severe consequences. Some consumers rationalize their purchasing decisions by claiming the health benefits of organic food (which have been thoroughly debunked), the avoidance of health risks associated with genetically modified foods (with which the scientific consensus disagrees), or the more environmentally friendly and sustainable approach to agriculture that organic farming enables.

The last argument might seem the most plausible. After all, organic farming forbids the use of synthetic pesticides, biotechnology, and many (but not all) pesticides. Unfortunately for Whole Foods Market shoppers, the argument doesn't quite hold up, according to shocking numbers compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Ouch, organic! Is organic farming really the most sustainable form of agriculture? To answer that, we need to define the word "sustainable" from an environmental point of view. Go ahead, take a minute to think about what the word really means. I'll wait.

If you cheated and looked in a dictionary, then you would have found something similar to this:

That would mean that the most sustainable agricultural methods would maintain natural resources, or in this case, land, to which all other natural resources -- water, soil, energy input, fertilizer use, and the like -- are dependent upon. To use land and derivative natural resources as sustainably as possible requires using the least input to produce the most food. So, how does organic farming stack up?

Not so well, according to numbers from the USDA. When the department logged yield data (food produced per acre) from various crops grown organically, government researchers found that they severely underperformed the same crops grown with more traditional farming methods.

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Three organic outlets in 30 days. Six more in the year that followed. Jaycee Greens has grown big in the organic food business.

Its ECR outlet, opened last week, has shelves packed with a great variety of vegetables.

The founders of Jaycee Greens brothers K. Chandrasekaran and K. Jayachandran however believe the organic food business has to cover more ground in Chennai. In fact, the issue is about retaining the covered ground.

Of the five organic stores opening in the city every month, three close down, says Jayachandran, a sugar technologist who retired as joint managing director of Empee Sugars.

They started the cultivation business five years ago, when their first major challenge was to convert 265 acres of barren land into cultivable land. It took us three years to convert the non-organic soil to organic, he says.

Once the fields producing yield, they started supplying to organic stores in the city Then we supplied to retailers. We found out they were selling the products at exorbitant prices, Jayachandran says, explaining what led them to open their own outlet. The T. Nagar store, opened one-and-a-half years ago, has nearly 200 walk-ins a day and accounts for a sale of Rs. 75,000 to a lakh a day. He says 85 per cent of the fruits and vegetables are sourced from their three farms in Madhuranthagam, Thirupattur and Thiruvenelli, which makes it easy for them to offer them at affordable prices.

Our strength is production. We dont have to pay any commission or margin to the middlemen in sourcing products. Around 25 shops in the city get their supply twice a week from our farms, he says. They are members of Foundation of Organic Association. Apart from 40 varieties of vegetables, the stores also stock organic pulses, rice, oil, millets and home-made snacks. The ECR outlet also has a kids play area, cafeteria and a counter selling cows milk. Visit them at http://www.jayceegreens.in or call T.Nagar (43359271), Adyar (42695944) and Kovilambakkam (49527252), ECR (42024116)

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Organic march

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The organic-food business is booming: About 70 percent of Americans buy organic food occasionally, and nearly one quarter buy it every week, according to the Hartman Group, a market research firm. For most of us, the reason is simple: We want natural food that's better for us and for the environment, says Samuel Fromartz, author of Organic, Inc. But buying organic can cost you as much as 50 percent more so read on to know when it's worth it.

What is organic food, anyway? Though organic food can be produced with certain synthetic ingredients, it must adhere to specific standards regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Crops are generally grown without synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilizers, irradiation (a form of radiation used to kill bacteria), or biotechnology. Animals on organic farms eat organically grown feed, aren't confined 100 percent of the time (as they sometimes are on conventional farms), and are raised without antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones.

Is organic food better for me? Organic foods may have higher nutritional value than conventional food, according to some research. The reason: In the absence of pesticides and fertilizers, plants boost their production of the phytochemicals (vitamins and antioxidants) that strengthen their resistance to bugs and weeds. Some studies have linked pesticides in our food to everything from headaches to cancer to birth defects but many experts maintain that the levels in conventional food are safe for most healthy adults. Even low-level pesticide exposure, however, can be significantly more toxic for fetuses and children (due to their less-developed immune systems) and for pregnant women (it puts added strain on their already taxed organs), according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences.

Pesticide contamination isn't as much of a concern in meats and dairy products (animals may consume some pesticides, depending on their diet), but many scientists are concerned about the antibiotics being given to most farm animals: Many are the same antibiotics humans rely on, and overuse of these drugs has already enabled bacteria to develop resistance to them, rendering them less effective in fighting infection, says Chuck Benbrook, Ph.D., chief scientist at the Organic Center, a nonprofit research organization.

Is buying organic better for the environment? Organic farming reduces pollutants in groundwater and creates richer soil that aids plant growth while reducing erosion, according to the Organic Trade Association. It also decreases pesticides that can end up in your drinking glass; in some cities, pesticides in tap water have been measured at unsafe levels for weeks at a time, according to an analysis performed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). (To find out about the safety of your tap water, visit the EWG website at ewg.org/tapwater/yourwater.) Plus, organic farming used 50 percent less energy than conventional farming methods in one 15-year study.

When is it worth the splurge? If you can afford it, buy local and organic, recommends Fromartz. Farmers' markets carry reasonably priced locally grown organic and conventional food; to find one in your area, go to localharvest.org. If you can't always afford organic, do spend the extra money when it comes to what the EWG calls the "dirty dozen": peaches, strawberries, nectarines, apples, spinach, celery, pears, sweet bell peppers, cherries, potatoes, lettuce, and imported grapes. These fragile fruits and vegetables often require more pesticides to fight off bugs compared to hardier produce, such as asparagus and broccoli. Download a list of produce ranked by pesticide contamination at foodnews.org, an EWG website.

When shopping for organic foods, always look for the USDA seal on any kind of packaged food. For meat and dairy, this seal ensures you're getting antibiotic- and hormone-free products. When buying meat or produce that isn't packaged, look for a sign stating that it's organic, or ask the store clerk.

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This video highlights five key areas to transform our world and culture. They are Peace, Good Government, Localism, Organic Food and Learning. Pretty hard to argue with, eh?

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