Organic food enters the mainstream - will it bubble to the top?

The popularity of organic food rests on factual information, contested information and assumptions.

Maintaining farm soils in top productive condition is perhaps the main focus of organic farmers, and the organic certifying agencies. The agency's logo on product packaging is a selling point and a quality assurance to consumers.

Fears over the health consequences of chemical residues in food, and now over genetically modified food, are important. At present, the organic certification agencies won't approve GM foods.

The claim that organically-grown food is more nutritious and tasty has been confused by studies producing conflicting results. I believe it is. However, tastes are subjective.

While organic fruit with marks on it does not differ nutritionally to conventionally grown food (such as polished apples) it can create a disincentive to buy when compared to cosmetically perfect fruit. But the appearance of organic fruit is improving and older fruit and vegetables once found in organic retailers are less likely.

"Food miles" is a concept developed by promoters of local food, referring to the distance travelled by food products from grower to consumer. It is seen as an indicator of lack of freshness, as well as the road congestion and pollution caused by fossil-fueled delivery trucks.

Veteran campaigner Helena Norberg-Hodge has popularised these ideas in the UK and they are gaining currency in the US and here. Advocates of regional cuisine such as the Slow Foods organisation are soon to hold their first Australian get-together.

Nutrition, freshness and, safety are selling points for organic local or regional food. The fast-growing number of farmers' markets effectively cut the food miles. Sydney has had two for some years and last year Brisbane's Northey Street City Farm started. There are many others and Australia's first national conference recently took place in Bathurst with the support of the town council. Local food can boost local economies and tourism, as at the Hawkesbury Harvest Trail near Sydney, and a similar trail on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.

But the organics industry is far from free of criticism that it contributes to well-travelled food: 40 per cent of Australia's organic production is exported and foreign organic produce - pasta from Italy, beans, and yoghurt from Paris Creek - indicates that the industry is part of the globalised food chain.

Now that organics is an established industry, it has the dynamics of any other industry and is in competition with conventional agriculture and farmers, nutritionists and scientists, although the diners of Australia have voted with their cash in favour of the industry. The industry still has much work to do to dispel misperceptions, to obtain evidence for some of its claims, and to increase the quality of its product. But there are two other significant challenges.

The first is to achieve wider distribution by getting products into the venues where most people obtain their food - the supermarkets.

The second challenge is to further 'normalise' organic food. This could be done through offering it alongside conventional food lines, reducing the price differential, and promoting the virtues of organic food through an advertising strategy.

Up in northern NSW, Robyn Francis continues to offer home-grown organic foods from her garden and organic products from the region in her eatery. She knows she is doing the right thing because her customers tell her so. And in a market economy, that's all you need to know.