When carrots are hotter than Coach

PULLMAN — Julie Sullivan steals bites of a big orange carrot as she assists community members coming to collect their purchased share of the harvest at the Washington State University organic teaching farm.

The pigtailed former city girl is the first graduate with the university's new organic agriculture major — itself a first in the nation. Now assistant manager of the farm, she waxes enthusiastic about organic food, which she began eating as an Olympia teenager.

"Local, organic food is one of the most important things," Sullivan says.

She represents the newest iteration of the land-grant university's 117-year-old tradition of partnering with the agricultural industry to improve practices and increase competitiveness. With the organic major, part of a new agriculture-and-food-systems degree, the university is continuing efforts, begun in the mid-'80s, to help industry meet growing consumer demand for affordable, plentiful, high-quality organic products. Though organic groceries comprise only about 3 percent of all U.S. grocery sales, the Organic Trade Association says annual organic sales growth is approaching 20 percent.

Organic is hot.

In the South Lake Union neighborhood where I work, the most fashionable accessory arguably isn't a Coach purse but a handsome green canvas bag bearing the Whole Foods logo. The $2.99 grocery bags replace disposable bags for shoppers at the nation's oldest organic-grocery chain's store on Westlake Avenue.

But even in many conventional supermarkets, organic products are moving out of their segregated aisles to take their place on shelves next to non-organics. I did a double take when I saw "organic" and "Oreos" sharing the same box on one recent shopping trip at my local Fred Meyer. My eyes did not deceive me. The Nabisco box claimed the contents were made with organic flour and sugar.

Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer and QFC, recently announced its own organic-food line under the Private Selection label. With the buying power of such chains as Kroger and Wal-Mart, which are increasing their organic-products selection, prices for organic products are likely to become more affordable.

Which brings us to Washington State University. There, scientists are applying to organic agriculture the same crackerjack research that has helped make Washington's agricultural products sought after the world over. Think soft white wheat, apples and wine.

The state Legislature is helping, giving WSU about $600,000 a year for research to support biologically intensive and organic agriculture.

On wheatfields southeast of campus, Professor Steve Jones and his students are looking to agriculture's distant past to produce wheat without the chemicals that have made modern varieties lazy in resisting diseases or sucking up nutrients. They are breeding new wheat varieties bearing qualities modern consumers expect with old varieties sowed in the Palouse decades ago. They are developing perennial wheat that can be harvested over years instead of annually so farmers can minimize how often they need to disturb the field for weed control.

In Washington, the organic-farming movement can be traced to a November 1974 conference in Ellensburg, according to a recent paper by WSU's David Granatstein and Anne Schwartz. But only lately has the movement gained the most traction with producers.

In 2006, Washington had 60,000 certified organic acres that produced about $100 million in sales. That was a jump in acreage of about 40 percent from the previous year.

The authors estimated by the end of this year, organic farms will number more than 700 — up from 554 in 2006.

Some are new producers but many are conventional farmers going organic.

Organic-ag students Amanda Swainz and Will Hollingbery grew up on Washington family farms and said their parents are considering adding organic farming into the conventional mix. Swainz hopes to be a consultant who can help producers find the balance between quality and quantity to increase commercial successful.

In the meantime, students are learning the basics at the teaching farm, learning how to keep bugs off of tender kale and chard with gauzy row covers instead of chemicals and helping a researcher discern which varieties of personal-sized watermelons grow best organically.

Organic agriculture might shun chemicals but these young, modern-minded farmers are not shunning science.

Kate Riley's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is kriley@seattletimes.com for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at seattletimes.com