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Tonight, organic industry leader and OPN contributor Melody Meyer, will receive CCOF’s annual Organic Champion award in celebration of her life-long dedication to the organic industry. Melody was one of CCOF’s first supporters, and has been an unwavering champion of CCOF’s Future Organic Farmer Grant Fund, providing unparalleled commitment as a member of the fund’s advisory committee, as well as her generous financial contributions to the fund. We congratulate Melody for her tireless work in promoting the entire organic community----and thank her for her remarkable work with OPN.
Congratulations Mel, how does it feel to be honored by CCOF and receiving this prestigious award?
I feel incredibly humbled and grateful for the amazing opportunities I’ve had over the span of my career. I probably don’t deserve an award for doing the things I love. I have had the opportunity to work with good organic growers across the globe while expanding the organic category in neighborhoods throughout the US. It’s been a fun and rewarding ride!
Give our readers some background on your multi-decade career in the organic sector.
In the 70’s and 80’s I was bell-bottomed in Coop’s and Natural Food Stores cutting cheese and bagging herbs. I gravitated towards the produce aisle and was soon buying from organic growers before there were organic regulations.
I helped Watsonville Coast Produce open their organic program in 1988 and soon thereafter went into the brokerage business at S&S Produce. We were affiliated with Ocean Organic, Bud Capurros’ first organic grower/shipper operation.
In the 90’s it was my biggest dream to someday book a full truckload of organic produce. With that first straight load of organic carrots I never looked back. I started my own brokerage business in 1995 and sold it to Alberts Organics / UNFI in 2001.
I was offered many opportunities to grow organic acres and fill shopping carts at UNFI. From VP of Procurement for fresh produce to importing Fair Trade bananas and mangoes, I made lifelong friends I now consider family.
In 2012 I became VP of Policy & Industry Relations and helped found the UNFI Foundation which supports organic farming. In my current role I have served on the OTA, COPAC and The Organic Center boards.
Do you miss your organic produce buying days?
I remember the first day I didn’t have a cooler full of fresh produce somewhere respiring towards its expiration date. It was a certain freedom from inventory. At the same time I also had to figure out what to do with all that nervous attention-deficit energy that had served me so well in the emergency rooms of fresh produce.
I learned to be more strategic and yes sometimes miss the hustle & jive of fresh produce. I also miss bumping down dusty fields with organic growers chatting about the weather and market conditions. Getting to know their families and breaking bread together.
Over the decades what have been the biggest changes you have witnessed in organic produce?
The fact that organic produce leads the organic category in sales is simply astounding. According to the 2017 OTA Industry Survey, organic produce accounts for 40 percent of all organic sales and continues to grow at triple the growth of non-organic produce. Now organic fresh produce can be found in almost every store in every corner of the U.S.! Organic isn’t just a niche or new-age fad like it was 40 years ago. It’s a force of agriculture that can mitigate some of the most pressing challenges facing us today.
In your opinion, what was the tipping point that took organics from niche to mainstream?
You can harken back to the alar scare of 1989 or some other food contamination crisis, but I believe it’s something more profound than that. I think we as a society are waking up to the fact that food is health. Transparency in what we eat is a powerful driver of the organic movement.
Organic is the most transparent and highly vetted food in the marketplace. The moment consumers realized there is real safety built into the label, the more they load up their grocery carts with organic faire.
Concurrent to this culinary shift, large growers began embracing organic production which made the organic choice more affordable and available in more places. Consumers continue to buy more as a result.
How has the organic consumer changed?
The organic consumer is no longer a tie-dyed food-fanatic (although they still exist). Today’s organic consumer is young and middle aged, educated and hardworking. They are regular mainstream people trying to make the right choice for themselves and their families.
How does “buy local” impact organics?
The local movement only enhances the organic industry. It brings people in touch with where their food comes from and the farmer grows it. This intrinsic knowledge about food and farming leads that same shopper to choose more organic items outside of the local offering.
Many local farmers are organic and they enjoy a more prosperous business that often grows into bigger organic farm.
What are your current concerns facing the organic industry and how should we tackle these issues?
I am concerned that our current federal policies don’t do enough to support and foster organic production in the U.S. Most of the current Farm Bill programs focus on incentives and research for large conventional commodities like, corn and soy. These are being overproduced and harm our environment with toxic inputs. They don’t feed people directly but instead go into animal feed or into unhealthy high fructose calorie laden foods that are in turn creating an obesity crisis.
Going forward we need to be vigilant and politically active. We must assure that the 2018 Farm Bill has more funding for sustainable organic agriculture.
I believe we can change the paradigm of US agricultural policy, but it will take a commitment to policy.
Do you feel the USDA organic seal is at risk of losing its consumer power when other labels like regenerative and sustainability grown are being bantered about?
Being an eternal optimist I really don’t. Labels and claims have come and gone and organic continues to be held as the gold standard, the only one with regulations and enforcement. I do believe we need more education so that consumers know what organic stands for and how hard farmers work to comply with the regulations.
