Monday, 27 December 2010
According to the Scotsman, more than half of Scottish children under two are now fed an exclusively organic diet. In fact, organic baby food accounted for 43% of total baby food sales in 2004. That represented sales of more than 63 million GBP in 2004.
A survey of 805 mothers and pregnant women conducted by the polling company BMRB found that four out of five mothers chose organic food for weaning their young children off of milk (between 6 months and 1 year old). The reasons given were clearly related to additives and chemical spraying. Mothers in the survey cited “less risk of chemical pesticides” (87%), “no additives” (80%), and “no GM” (84%).
Intensive marketing campaigns by groups such as the Soil Association Scotland are getting the message across about the negative effects of pesticides. This is clearly having an impact on the buying preferences of parents, and also on changes in school menus.
Organic milk also has positive health characteristics. It can contain up to 71 per cent more omega 3 than non-organic milk and most organic milk has a better ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 than conventional milk. Companies such as Hipp are bringing new products to market — such as organic purees for weaning purposes — to take advantage of the demand.
But adults are not changing their own eating habits nearly as quickly. Asda, a Scottish supermarket chain owned by WalMart, says organic produce for adults accounts for only about 2% of total sales.
No comments:
Post a Comment