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Organic-beef producers expecting demand to soar

By David Dishneau
The Associated Press

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Mad-cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, is believed to be spread through cattle feed containing protein or bone meal from infected cattle or sheep. Although the government banned feeding cattle such products in 1997, organic-food advocates said the law has loopholes and is poorly enforced.

U.S. organic-beef standards, which took effect in October 2002, provide for certification of producers whose practices have passed muster with either a state or private inspector. The standards include an all-vegetable diet once the animal is weaned.

"We will now see a huge increase in the demand" for organic beef, which accounts for no more than 1 percent of U.S. beef sales, Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, of Little Marais, Minn., said Wednesday.

Nick Maravell, owner of Nick's Organic Farm, said he sold all the beef from his small Black Angus herd in Adamstown, Md., almost immediately after the autumn slaughter. Maravell, vice chairman of the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association, said he expects next year's crop of six animals to go just as fast.

"Many people have been in the process, such as myself, of increasing their organic herds, so definitely I would assume the supply would be growing with or without the mad-cow scare," he said. "People who are sitting on the sidelines right now in our state association, I think this will be a definite incentive for them to go into it."

Chicago-based Dakota Beef claims to be the nation's largest organic producer, with 25 farms and processors under contract to produce beef that will start showing up in national supermarket meat cases in 2004.

Spokesman Seldon Moreland wouldn't predict the sales impact of the mad-cow news but said: "I can 100 percent assure you that certified organic beef is free of possible infection from BSE."

The same claim is made by some nonorganic producers, including Denver-based Coleman Natural Products. Coleman Chairman Mel Coleman Jr. said his company also insists on an all-vegetable diet but not on organic feed, which must be certified as free from herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Coleman beef, sold in Whole Foods Markets and other supermarkets nationally, is free of added hormones and antibiotics, the company says.

The pork and poultry industries said Americans' concerns about one food easily can translate to suspicions about others.

"This is not good for chicken," said Bill Roenigk, an official with the National Chicken Council. "Consumers should be and are concerned about their food supply. Anything that jeopardizes consumer confidence in the food supply is not good for us."

Jon Caspers, president of the National Pork Producers Council, agreed.

"It's just anybody's guess," said Caspers, a hog farmer in Swaledale, Iowa. "Markets don't deal with these things very often. It is hard to predict."

Associated Press reporter Pam Easton reported from Houston.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company