Organic Food, What's The Situation?
Organic food and product are on everyone's lips. Time Magazine dedicated a special issue which analyzed pros and cons of organic food.
In the UK, “Sales of organic food are still three times higher than in 1999 and over 50% higher then five years ago.”
“Sales of organic products in the USA, both food and non-food, reached 24.6 billion US dollars by the end of 2008, growing an impressive 17.1 % over 2007 sales despite tough economic times, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA).”
But, I don't need a hyperlink to underline that organic food's costly.
In Italy, "according research by Ispo (a leading research institute, September 2004), 77% of adults think organic food is healthier." In September there is the Italian natural food exhibition, the SANA.
This year the Italian Association for Organic Agriculture (AIAB) criticized harshly the latest edition: “The Bologna fair is now reduced to the simulacrum of the national fair of organic that has been in the past, becoming an important regional trade fair with the participation of players far from organic. In the market presence and abroad it's time to boost the promotion of organic Italian. In this sense, the Italian Association for Organic Agriculture hailed as a great opportunity to launch the exhibition 'B-to-bio' which will take place next May in Milan.”
I'm a big fan of organic food, and I mostly agree with the AIAB opinion. I didn't go to SANA in Bologna this year, choosing a little fair in Correggio called Natura Bio. Correggio is a little town, not so far from Bologna, known because was born Antonio Allegri usually known as Correggio, "the foremost painter of the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance."
Visiting BioNatura, I had a lot of fun. I bought organic bread, and organic salami. But it was great to discover great natural products that are not food. I took some photos that you can see in my flickr account.
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