It's only January, and the organic industry is already having a bad year. Not only have producers been losing consumers due to the hefty price tag of organic food, but the industry has struggled to maintain its integrity.
With organic feed prices at an all-time high, farmers in the UK are lobbying the government to temporarily relax organic feed standards to assist livestock producers who are currently paying twice as much for organic feed as they would conventional. 
In California, state investigators have discovered that California Liquid Fertilizer, an organic farming treatment, had been spiking its fertilizer with a synthetic product banned from organic farms. The tainted fertilizer infiltrated up to a third of the organic market, including produce giants such as Earthbound Farms, for up to seven years. Following the incident, investigations have begun into other organic fertilizer distributors in different states.
With these issues now in the spotlight, it's my feeling that consumers will be left confused about organic standards of quality, and distrustful of industry practices. Does this affect your preferences about shopping organic?
i think that it's really going to make people question things a lot more and that's a shame. for myself - i was trying to buy organic because of precedence and because there was a higher standard that was being applied to how foods were grown and produced. knowing that there was a fertilizer company that wasn't being honest - well that makes you question things sometimes. granted at least we know this now, and we know what the company was, so you are able to watch out for products that used this - but still - it makes you wonder. i know that there are folks who are out for their own personal gains, but if they are more honest about how they produce things, then it would be a win win in the future.
as for the high costs - that's a hard one - but i think that if we're in the position to understand that we're getting a higher quality, and perhaps healthier product because it's organic, then i think that consumers are a bit more willing to pay a little bit more. it can be hard for farmers to keep making a profit since their costs are so high, but like anything else, it due time i'm sure it will all level out.
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