The American population is becoming more health-conscious as seen by the increase in the demand for chemical-free and locally produced food. This, in return, has caused an outpour in the number of organic operations around the country.
A growing number of American consumers have become interested in patronizing locally sourced foods. In 2014, the local food sales was worth at least $12 billion from $5 billion six years ago.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the figures pertaining to the number of certified organic producers has increased by almost 12 percent from 2014 to 2015. This is considered to be the highest rate increase ever since 2008.
"A powerful local and regional food movement is growing inside the United States," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote on Medium, "a movement that directly connects consumers with how, where and by whom their food is grown."
Furthermore, the U.S. now has 21,781 certified organic growers. This number is 300 percent more than what was recorded in 2002, when the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service first began keeping track. The United States' organic retail market too has increased it terms of worth. It is now worth more than $39 billion from $35 billion two years ago.
The Associated Press also found out through a recent survey that 66 percent of the American population support the mandatory labels for food products that have GMOs. This is in contrast to the 7 percent who did not like the idea.
Furthermore, several major food producers "have already begun voluntarily labelling products containing GMOs, and a Vermont law will soon require all genetically engineered food sold in the state to be labelled," the Huffington Post revealed.
All these numbers and figures moving upwards point towards a new trend among the Americans: they are more conscious when it comes the ingredients used to produce their daily food.
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