The time is ripe for Jeff Bezos to work his business acumen on an area of the US food system thats been slowly growing for years: organic food. And withhis purchase of Whole Foods Market[in June], hell have even more reason to try and convince US farmers to join him.

But theres a problem for Bezos if he wants to make organic food as ubiquitous as an Amazon-branded delivery box. As demand for organic fruits and vegetables has grown, the number of acres used to farm those crops has remained about the same.

For now, the US has relied on importing organic vegetables and fruits from other countries to make up the differencesomething some expertsremain dubious aboutwhen there are instances of imports of so-called organic corn and soy from China, for example, that have been found to be fraudulent.

[Editors note:TheNational Sustainable Agriculture Coalitionreports that organic farming increased in 2015. According to NSAC: A closer look at the2015 Organic Production Surveyreveals that virtually all of the increase of 691,289 acres can be attributed to a single livestock organic operation becoming certified in September 2015. Due to the addition of this large ranch, Alaska shot from up from having around 300 certified organic acres to having nearly 700,000, second only to California in total certified acres.]

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Amazons new grocery venture gives Jeff Bezos his greatest challengecreating enough organic food

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Organic crop farming in US slides even as demand for organic food increases - Genetic Literacy Project