U.S. organic sales hit a record $52 billion in 2018

The Organic Trade Association reports that 2018 marked a record year for U.S. organic sales topping $50 billion for the first time. Total sales of organic products reached $52.5 billion, up 6.3 percent from 2017.

Both organic food and non-food products reached record sales highs. Organic food sales were $47.9 billion, an increase of 5.9 percent over 2017. Organic non-food product sales were $4.6 billion, an increase of 10.6 percent from 2017.

Sales of organic fruits and vegetables reached $17.4 billion in 2018, a 5.6 percent rate of growth over 2017. Fruits and vegetables now account for 36.3 percent of all organic food sales. Organic fruits and vegetable account for 14.6 percent of all the produce sold in the United States. Market share of organic fruits and vegetables has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.

Hort Americas visits Plant Factories (Vertical Farms), Tokyo and Chiba University

Hort Americas had the opportunity of the year this past week.  Hort Americas was able to visit commercial horticulture businesses (including but not limited to greenhouses, garden centers, vertical farms and plant factories) in Tokyo and Yokohama and then head to an International Meetings on Plant Factory at Chiba University.

We know pictures are worth a thousand words, so please enjoy.

Small garden centers and poinsettias were everywhere.
Plus we had a chance to visit the Sakata Garden Center.

Japanese consumers are definitely willing to pay for quality.

Vertical farming concepts at Farming Frontier 2012

Plant factory research was one of the many reasons for our trip.

Local farmers market in downtown Tokyo.

We will save the details of this one for later.

Green walls on high-end jewelry stores on Ginza St.

Just one display of some of the amazing orchids we saw.

Chiba University is, in our opinion, providing students with an amazing opportunity to innovate  in the green world.
Dr. Kozai – nothing more needs to be said.

Climate-controlled propagation of tomatoes for the greenhouse.

Chiba University branded tomatoes.

Mirai’s Plant Factory at Chiba University.

“Green-Innovation”

Plant factories in the mall – Mirai.

University of Wageningen and Chiba University working together to innovate the horticulture industry.

A very nice reception at Chiba – International Meeting of Plant Factory 2012.

Chiba University

New technology from Mebiol – Greenhouse-grown tomatoes

One final garden center photo.

Should you have additional questions on any of the images, please email us at infohortamericas@gmail.com.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Visit our corporate website at https://hortamericas.com

The Future of Growing with Tim Blank

www.futuregrowing.comLast week Hort Americas had the pleasure of visiting with a visionary from with-in the commercial Hydroponic Industry.

Tim Blank of Future Growing

Tim Blank of Future Growing, LLC (formerly working with Hydroponics for Disney’s Epcot theme park in Orlando) is committed to further developing Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture.  His primary driver is to provide as many people as possible with access to healthy and locally grown food options.  If you are seriously interested in learning more about Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture, we recommend you visit Tim’s website at www.futuregrowing.com.  And, if you are interested in purchasing hydroponic towers for your backyard please send Doug Pennington and email at dpennington@hortamericas.com.

Visit our corporate website at https://hortamericas.com

Food security, safety and availability!

More Households Request Food Aid

The U.S. Agriculture Department said Monday the number of households that reported struggling to buy enough food in 2008 jumped 31% over the previous year.According to the USDA’s annual poll, 17 million U.S. households reported some degree of food insecurity in 2008, up from 13 million households in 2007.

Associated PressFood banks are seeing a jump in people needing help, a survey says.

“It is time for America to get very serious about food security and hunger,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who is pressing Congress to expand such programs as food stamps and free school lunches that consume roughly 70% of his department’s budget.Comparable numbers for 2009 aren’t available yet. Officials with organizations involved in feeding the hungry say the survey results square with growing demand at food pantries: the number of people seeking help this summer is up an average of 30% from the summer of 2008, according to a recent survey of food banks by Feeding America, a food-bank network.The 2008 survey results suggest that almost 15% of U.S. households had trouble putting enough food on their tables, up from 11% in 2007; the proportion is the highest detected by the survey since it began in 1995. Put another way, about 49 million people, including about 17 million children, worried last year about getting enough to eat.Maura Daly, vice president of government relations for Feeding America, said 90% of food banks in the recent survey reported that, according to anecdotal evidence, unemployment is the leading factor for the increased demand.

[Food Crisis chart]

U.S. consumers in 2008 also saw a sudden acceleration in the cost of food. While the food inflation rate has stalled this year, some economists are worried that the move by many recession-weary farmers to cut production might ignite grocery prices again next year.The global recession is helping swell the number of hungry people around the world to the highest levels since the early 1970s.But the way USDA economists measure food worries in the U.S. is far more liberal than their gauge for other nations, where people are labeled food insecure only if they consume fewer than 2,100 calories a day. Few of the U.S. households labeled as food insecure by the USDA have it that tough.Instead, the USDA’s domestic survey tries to quantify the number of households that have difficulty providing enough food at some time during the year. Many of these families are able to avoid hunger by participating in such federal nutrition programs as food stamps, or by having their children participate in a free school-lunch program.Still, the USDA survey indicates that someone in about one-third of food-insecure households experienced some hunger or came very close to it in 2008. In these households with very low food security, food consumption fell and normal eating patterns were disrupted.According to the survey, 6.7 million U.S. households had very low food security in 2008, up 43% from 4.7 million households in 2007.