摘要：Future growth of organic production methods in the United States is linked to the rate at which consumer demand for organic foods continues to expand. While retail sales of organic foods have grown at around 20 percent annually during the 1990's, the market share of organic foods has remained small at less than 3 percent. Whether organic foods will expand beyond this niche market to account for more than 5 or 10 percent of retail food sales remains uncertain. A growing variety of organic foods has become increasingly available at mainstream supermarkets as traditional food manufacturers have acquired organic food companies and promoted their own organic lines of products. But high prices of many organic foods relative to conventional counterparts have inhibited growth in organic market share.
