Organic grows like weed - this is why

Organic food is stepping into the fridges of normal people. According to a new TV ad from Wollworths own brand Macro, organic food is no longer hippie. It´s for the man in suit

IBISWorld predicts that organic food is one of the ten industries of the future, and even if the market share is low (I read in Time last week that only 3% of the food sold in Us is organic), the market share is growing in the Western World. With 15 % this year, according to an article in BRW. That´s a lot.

I´d say this is why:

HEALTH + WELLBEING
The drivers behind the boom is of course health concerns, since organic is proven to be more nutricional according to research, but other factors are also affecting. Another trend in line with this is the boost in alternative health, that I reported about a week ago.

BABY BOOMERS RICH ENOUGH TO CARE
We will soon see a huge group of baby boomers, stepping out of the work force, ready to rock´n´roll, and they will do that in style. They have money enough to pay a little extra, and organic is seen as a "posh" alternative today, rather than a hippie choice. Organic is probably also making people feel as if they care; it gives them an identity of being aware of the health of the globe. This is both an intrinsic and an extrinsic value.

KNOWLEDGE CREATES SCEPTICISM
Another driver is our need of transparency. The Internet revolution has made every person a besser wisser, full of information and answers to everything, collected from their ipods. We know what is good, and will not accept massive brands producing food in suspicious ways.

WE ARE INDIVIDUALS, NOT HERDS
Information overload is also creating an elitism in the food market, where we wish to separate us from others, and have our own style. Just as people in Greenland has 1000 words for snow, the more we know about food, the more aware we become about differences - and we want what suits US. So, the more organic sold and shown on the shelves, the larger the demand.

How will you use this knowledge? We are just in the beginning of the organic revolution, and the market is warming up. It´s getting safe for brands to sell the healthy, cool alternative. Where is McDonalds? Where is Coke? The big brands have always been slow in adapting to the new trends (just recently stepping into the gourmet trend for example...), but you can get in there now. And leverage.