But that was good compared to its next door neighbour, said the report by the Canada Organic Trade Association.

“Saskatchewan demonstrated the largest acreage decline, with 119,099 fewer acres, followed by Alberta at 6,214 fewer acres,” the report states. “Manitoba was the only Prairie province to post an increase in acreage, with 6,513 acres added.”

From 2010 to 2018, Alberta’s organic acres nearly doubled to 566,000 acres. But that figure edged down slightly last year to just under 560,000 acres.

Alberta accounts for about a third of organic acres on the Prairies, with a roughly even split between field crops (289,000 acres) and forage land (269,000 acres). Organically grown cereals (largely wheat and oats) along with pulses account for nearly all of the field crop acres.

The drop in Saskatchewan acreage was almost entirely due to a decline in forage land.

About half of the land in organic production is on the Prairies, but Quebec has seen a sharp increase in both the number of producers and acres.

The report says there were just under 600 organic crop farms in Alberta in 2019 (four fewer than a year earlier) and 57 organic livestock operations (unchanged from 2018).

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The latest report, the fifth annual, puts the number of certified organic operations on the Prairies at 1,975 in 2018 (compared to 1,840 in 2017). And for the first time, land used for organic field crop production exceeded that used for livestock forage, green manures, wild crafting, and ecological acres, the association said.

Collectively, Prairie organic food and beverage markets are valued at over $850 million while the Prairies account for 27 per cent of organic operations in the country.

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Could conventional agriculture be next?

Nah. All the generations are working on that one, says an organic industry official.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a millennial, Gen X, or baby boomer — across the board, organics is going up,” said Tia Loftsgard, chief executive officer of the Canada Organic Trade Association.

“You cannot dispel the fact that this is a sector that’s growing.”

The organization annually surveys consumers to gauge how many are buying on a weekly basis.

In 2017, it found 83 per cent of millennials were regularly buying organic food (up from 80 per cent a year earlier), with generation X shoppers in second spot at 62 per cent (versus 58 per cent a year earlier). But baby boomers are coming on fast — with 56 per cent saying they buy some organic food on a weekly basis (versus 47 per cent a year earlier).

Millennials are not only persuading their parents (or grandparents) of the merits of organic food but are also holding fast themselves. The theory was that millennials could afford to indulge in “expensive organics” because they were living rent free at home.

But now they’re getting jobs and moving out on their own — and they’re still buying organics, Loftsgard said at the recent Organic Alberta conference.

Price is a factor, but not the barrier many expected.

“I think it’s really interesting to see that a family earning over $100,000 in income is purchasing at the same frequency as those under $40,000,” she said.

“This whole idea that if you don’t have money, you don’t buy organic is false. They do buy some organic.

“They’re just finding ways to make it affordable to buy because their values are what’s driving their purchases.”

This shift toward values-based purchasing is only going to continue to grow, she added. Consumers buying organics are doing so because they want to avoid highly processed foods (49 per cent cite that as a reason), as well as shunning foods that contain GMOs (37 per cent) and grown with applied chemicals (46 per cent). Organic shoppers also regularly say they believe organic is better for the environment.

“Public trust is a big discussion in Canadian agriculture right now,” said Loftsgard. “That’s really what’s going to drive the next generation of purchasers.”

She offered one more unexpected statistic for her audience of organic producers and other industry players: 74 per cent of Albertans buy organic food — tops in the nation.

“Alberta is leading the charge,” said Loftsgard. “I was shocked to see that. I always thought it was more British Columbia.”

Overall, 66 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they buy organic food on a weekly basis (up from 56 per cent in 2016).

A key driver of that increase comes down to availability.

Gone are the days when consumers had to go to natural health food stores to purchase organics. Now only one in four buyers does. Most get their organic food from regular grocery stores — which sold 80 per cent of the organics bought last year. This has resulted in $4.2 billion in organic food and drink purchases, an 8.4 per cent growth rate since 2012.

Produce is the top seller but demand for meat from animals only given organic feed is rising quickly and 80 per cent of consumers are interested in buying meat bearing a certified organic label.

“Alberta livestock producers, help us out here,” Loftsgard said to her audience.

The only way to do that across all organic sectors is by increasing the number of producers, she added. Right now, only 2.2 per cent of Canadian farms are certified organic, but that number is growing every year — particularly in Alberta, which has 413 certified organic operations and 426,000 acres of cropland that are certified organic.

“The more that it’s accessible and available, the more they’re going to continue to buy it,” said Loftsgard. “We want to make sure that organic food is available to everybody.”

The post The stereotypical organic consumer doesn’t exist anymore appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

An online consumer research study done earlier this year found that organic food is on the weekly shopping list of two in three Canadians — “up a staggering 10 points from 56 per cent in 2016,” the association said in a news release.

Most buy their organic food at “regular” stores, it said.

“We live in an age of transparency where consumers have a heightened interest in the food they eat,” Kathlyne Ross, Loblaw’s vice-president of food product development, said in the release.

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“Sixteen years ago we launched PC Organics to provide Canadians with accessible, reasonably priced organic foods. Since that time the category has grown exponentially and PC Organics now has more than 250 different products in a wide range of categories, ranging from produce and pasta to baby food and yogurt.”

Fruit and vegetables are the most popular organic food item followed by meat/poultry and dairy products, the survey of a consumer panel of more than 1,000 people set up by Ipsos Canada found.

“Millennials are key drivers of the organic market with 83 per cent purchasing organic food and beverages — the highest of any generation,” the association said in its news release. “Households with children are also more likely to buy organic than households without — 19 per cent of the weekly grocery bill for households with children goes toward organic items, compared to 12 per cent for those with no children.”

The survey also asked why people are buying organic food.

“More than half (55 per cent) now say their decision to buy organic products is influenced by recommendations from a health professional, an 11-point increase from 44 per cent in 2016,” the news release stated.

However, the association did not define “health professional.”

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