Recipe for a business boom: take the
hip lifestyle, add a pinch of nostalgia and stir in generous helpings
of Ralph Nader. That unlikely combination has created one of the
nation's fastest-rising businesses, the merchandising of organic foods.
Basically, these are the foods that great-grandma used to eat. They are
grown without the aid of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and
processed without the use of emulsifiers, mold inhibitors, bleaches,
preservatives, binders, buffers, drying agents or any other test-tube
additives. A few years ago, the market for such products was fed by a scattering of
faddists, who patronized a handful of “health food” shops. But that was
before the back-to-nature spirit roused the young, and much of the rest
of the nation was shaken by the cranberry scare, the mercury-in-tuna
scare and the cyclamate scare. Says Marshall Ackerman, executive vice
president of Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pa., which publishes books and
magazines about the movement: “I've been in this business for 16 years,
and nothing happened for the first 13. Since then it's become
phenomenal.” Last year the organic food shops had sales of about $200
million. Welcome to Babbitt. At latest count, 2,500 organic food stores were
operating in all 50 states. In Florida, stores are opening at the rate
of one a day. The largest concentrations are in the capitals of hipdom:
New York and California, but organic food stores have also reached
Ozark, Ala., Longmont, Colo., Penacook, N.H., and Babbitt, Minn. Fred Rohe, president of New Age Natural Foods, a San Francisco-based
chain, plans to sell stock to the public and start a franchising
operation. Some New Yorkers are talking of organizing an organic foods
mutual fund for investors. The newest wrinkle is the organic food
supermarket, with well-stocked aisles and fleets of shopping carts. In
Manhattan, at least, their customers come from all walks of life:
long-haired young men with backpacks, wealthy parents with children, a
few blacks and a sprinkling of the elderly. Many of them are operating
in suburban shopping centers. Conventional supermarkets are also
setting aside space for organic food departments, but most of the
business is controlled by private entrepreneurs. One of them, Mrs. Mary
Hatch, 65, left a job as a mortuary organist to open a store in San
Ramon, Calif. Says she: “I saw so many dead young people when I worked
in the mortuary—so many who would have lived if they had realized that
you are what you eat.” The foods sold in organic shops can reach for the exotic: carrot
cupcakes, sunflower-seed cookies and countless varieties of honey,
including alfalfa, avocado, tupelo blossom, eucalyptus, mesquite and
thistle. Manhattan's Good Earth market offers 13 varieties of dates
, three types of yogurt,
including goat, organic ice cream and pizza and 125 types of herbal
teas. The strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes and chicken can hardly be
distinguished from those in conventional markets—except, aficionados
insist, by healthfulness and taste. The most striking difference is
price: 25% to 50% more than regular foods.
