I'd like to make the argument that American farmers have an opportunity
to meet the international demand for organic or perhaps more generally
"green" products and to accrue the benefits that flow from that effort -
more environmental sound agriculture, more value to producers just to
name two.
Here's where I need some help: I don't have any information on the value
of the organic or green markets or any general information about the
issue of international competitiveness from the organic/sustainable
perspective. Can you help?
Also, I'd be interested in examples of 2 things:
1) loss of market because our products did not meet green or organic
standards (especially if the technical information was not available for
US producers to meet the standards required by the buyer)
2) capture of a market because we could provide a high quality product
grown according to the buyer's requirements
I've seen news reports in the last while about #1 with regard to roundup
ready soybeans and US pork in European markets. And I know from
experience that some US farmers are doing quite well supplying organic
soyfoods soybeans to Japan. But I don't have any authoritative references
to these examples and those would be helpful to bolster my argument.
Please email any references or contact people that might help. I need to
have this presentation pretty well done by 11/1.
Thanks for your help!
Laura