Costco is one of the largest distributors of organic food products here in the United States. This is something that comes to most people as a surprise.
According to the CEO Craig Jelinek, Costco actually sells so much organic produce that they are not currently able to keep up with the demand from their consumers. Costco has, however, decided to tackle this issue head on by doing something quite interesting. They intend to buy land and equipment for farmers so that they can begin growing organic produce for them. While this is only in the early stages it is going to be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Costco has up until now only worked with one partner, the Sand Diego-based produce wholesaler Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce. While other retailers have helped farmers financially through loan programs in a similar manner this is one of the only initiatives I have seen in which the farmers were encouraged to go organic. As you may be aware retail suppliers have thus far not been behind organic foods because of how conventional farming is these days.
The land needed to grow organic food is scarce and usually extremely expensive on top of that, this makes Costco’s initiative quite impressive. The demand for organic produce has increased dramatically thus causing companies like Costco to make changes in order to meet the people’s needs. This is amazing! Costco has been doing their part for awhile now when it comes to increasing the supply available for organic foods.
They have been buying cattle for awhile now and contracting with owners of organic fields in Nebraska to have ranchers raise their livestock. This for their organic ground-beef program. The project in the works for helping local farmers grow organic produce will be helping them to thrive and reduce our need for imported food products. Knocking out two birds with one stone in a sense.