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GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 6 Organic Food Continued from PAGE 1 the most important organic livestock and poultry product in the U.S. market. American farmers have also become global suppliers of fresh organic produce, with more than $550 million worth of organic products exported from the U.S. in 2014, according to an OTA study released in April. The top five or- ganic products exported from the U.S. in 2014 were apples, lettuce, grapes, spinach and strawberries. However, im- ports of organic product outpaced those exports, amounting to nearly $1.3 billion in 2014. The top five organic imported products are coffee, soybeans, olive oil, bananas and wine. "At the rate that or- ganic is growing, organic will double in size in six years. The current theory that my company is using is that by 2020 we [organic producers] will be at least 10 percent of the U.S. food market. How are we going to do that if we lack the raw materials? We are importing more soy- beans than we produce, significantly more than we produce," said Lynn Clark- son, President of Clarkson Grain. He noted that in 2013, U.S. imports of organic corn went up by 67 percent, with much of that coming from Romania. India is an important source of the soy- beans imported into the U.S., according to Clarkson. "We are turning over our best markets to other countries," he said. "When you can't find supply, you go to countries that are organic by default. Until we can tell American farmers that there's a secure market, we need to con- vince them that it's good enough that they can step in.... Every small town has a 'table of wisdom,' and many of those ta- bles are extraordinarily adverse to or- ganic farming. With the downturn in corn prices, farmers are starting to pay more attention to the possibility, and that's making cultural concerns less im- portant as economic concerns grow." Also from the USDA report, 10 states account for 78 percent of all organic sales in the U.S. California alone pro- duced $2.2 billion worth of organic products in 2014 from 2,805 certified and exempt organic farms and a total of 687,168 acres devoted to organic pro- duction, up from 470,903 in 2008. Cali- fornia farmers accounted for half of all organic crops produced in the U.S. in 2014. Washington, in second place, pro- duced 12 percent of organic crops in the U.S. and totaled up $515 million in or- ganic sales. In order, the top 10 states in organic sales were California, Washing- ton, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, New York, Colorado, Michigan and Iowa. California also leads the nation in or- ganic livestock and poultry sales, with $271 million, or 41 percent of all organic livestock sales in the U.S. and $301 mil- lion in livestock and poultry products – milk and eggs. Pennsylvania came in sec- ond in livestock and poultry sales with $112 million, or 17 percent of all organic livestock sales. Wisconsin came in sec- ond in organic livestock and poultry product sales, with $127 million or 8 percent of the U.S. total. GN Honeywell's new Solstice ® refrigerant for supermarket refrigeration has been named a finalist for the R&D 100 Awards, spon- sored by R&D Magazine. Often referred to as the "Oscars of In- vention," the R&D 100 Awards honors the 100 most innovative technologies and services of the past year. Evaluated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Solstice N40 (R-448A) refrigerant replaces high- global-warming refrigerants in supermar- ket applications. It is part of a growing line of Solstice products for applications rang- ing from auto air conditioning to highly- energy efficient appliance and building insulation, that have significantly lower global warming potential. "Naming Solstice N40 a finalist for this award recognizes more than a decade of re- search and investment that resulted in new solutions to help end customers lower their greenhouse gas impact while complying with new and anticipated regulations," said George Koutsaftes, Refrigerants Business Director for Honeywell Fluorine Products. "In addition to its lower environmental im- pact, Solstice N40 is highly energy efficient, giving supermarket owners an added ben- efit." Solstice N40 was nominated by the pub- lication in the Mechanical Devices/Materi- als category. "This was a particularly strong year for research and development, led by many outstanding technologies that broadened the scope of innovation," said R&D Maga- zine Editor Lindsay Hock. "We are honored to recognize these products and the project teams behind the design, development, testing, and production of these remarkable innovations and their impact in the field. We look forward to celebrating the winners on November 13 in Las Vegas." Global regulators are increasingly mov- ing to phase out high-global-warming re- frigerants and, on July 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pub- lished landmark regulations that will phase out the use of many hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. The new regulation, ef- fective July 2016. GN Supermarket Refrigerant Recognized in R&D Competition

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