Dean Foods’ Horizon Brands plans to create a "natural dairy" line to profit from consumers’ increasing disillusionment with Certified organic dairy products. Sales growth from organic products has flattened as consumers have learned that much of today’s organic milk did not come from pristine little pastoral farms in Vermont as they had supposed but from large-scale feedlot dairies in the West. Suzanne Shelton of the Shelton Group, a consumer research company, said that consumers now prefer the world "natural" to "organic" because they think organic is just a unregulated marketing buzzword that means the product is more expensive. "In reality, the opposite is true," she said. "Natural is the unregulated word." Ironically, the recent exposure that Dean had replaced organic soybeans with conventional soybeans in their Silk line of faux dairy products without changing the label or the price helped contribute to the consumers’ growing distrust of Certified organic products. Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute said that Dean Foods had declared war on the very organic industry which had brought them so much prosperity. Deans new Horizon "natural dairy" line will only claim that the milk is from cows who have not been given bovine growth hormones. This frees them to access all of their milk from industrial dairies without fear of media exposure or chastisement. Dean said that organic dairy was only three percent of its total sales. They recently converted their Rachael’s organic brand in the UK to conventional milk with little consumer backlash. Jack Lazor, a pioneer organic dairy marketer in Westfield, Vermont, said that Deans moves will no doubt have a negative impact on the organic category. "It is no more important than ever that consumers of organic dairy products understand the benefits of organic foods and farming," he said. Organic foods are currently a $24 billion industry in the USA.

In these days of depressed real estate, some developers are keeping their sales hot by making an organic farm the centerpiece of their development, The New York Times reported. Currently there are at least 200 developments that include agriculture as a key component according to the Urban Land Institute. In 2008, a 1756 acre Idaho development with an organic farm as its centerpiece realized a 61% price premium on the sale of its home sites over a nearby development with no farm and earned a $2.8 million dollar profit while still keeping 1000 of its acres open. Developers said that they had noticed that homeowners were willing to pay a 25 to 50% premium to live in America’s 16,000 golf course developments even though most of them didn’t play golf. A farm is far better because everyone eats. The Idaho developer said a farm creates permanent views, wholesome activities for children, access to walking and riding trails and inclusion in an epicurean club. Near the Atlanta airport, Atlanta restaurant impresario, Steve Nygren, has turned his 900 acre farm into a 220 home development that features an organic farm and "edible street landscaping" of blueberries, figs, peach and apple trees. Near Charlottesville, Virginia, a 2000 acre development has 300 Angus cattle grazing throughout the development. Once the development is completed, the grazing fee the rancher pays will go to help finance the homeowners association. The developers said that homeowners want a "working farm" that actually produces edible food and not a park. They said that the up-front costs of improving the soil enough to be farmed organically were high but not as high as putting in a golf course. The hardest part is finding an organic knowledgeable farmer to run the farm.

Between 1997 and 2007, the number of meat goats in the USA doubled. However, the USA remains the world’s largest importer of goat meat according to the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Poteau, Oklahoma. Sandra Solairman of Tuskeegee Institute estimates that the nation needs at least another 750,000 goats harvest each year to meat current domestic demand. The meat goat industry was traditionally centered in the arid Southwest but is now most rapidly expanding in the hot and humid Southeast. Currently, there are no large scale goat abattoirs in the region and most goats east of the Mississippi go to Connecticut or New Jersey for harvest. Consequently, prices in small volume markets are often half those elsewhere. Other problems are rising parasitism as commercial wormers lose their effectiveness and a lack of basic goat knowledge among new producers. "Goats are not small cattle," said Dr. David Sparks, a veterinarian in Porum, Oklahoma. However, cattle may be the best answer for southeastern goats’ parasitism problems as cattle are not susceptible to goat parasites. "Cattle are like a vacuum cleaner for goat parasites," said Dr. Steve Hart of Langston University. "You can just lead with cattle head of goats (in a rotational grazing program)." The two species are complimentary in other ways as well. Goats actually prefer the tall weeds and woody browse that cattle often ignore.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of millionaires in the world fell by 15% in 2008. The Capgemini and Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report found that the number of global millionaires fell to 8.6 million from 10.1 million. This is the largest decline since the survey was started 13 years ago. The survey defines millionaires as people with one million dollars worth of investable assets. The wealth of the world’s millionaires fell by 20% while the ultra-wealthy, those with $30 million, fell by 24%. In the USA, the number of millionaires fell to 2.5 million from three million in 2007. The U.K., Russia, India, Australia and Canada, all had larger percentage drops in their number of millionaires than the USA. Least affected were Brazil and China.

Apparently, the recession is sending consumers back to basic food staples. The Wall Street Journal reported that profits for Kroger were up 13% in the first quarter and Wal-Mart Stores sales climbed 3.1% over last years sales as shoppers turned to inexpensive private label varieties of canned vegetables, grains, pasta, baking mixes, breakfast cereals and whole wheat bread. In contrast, Whole Foods reported a 4% decline in same store sales in the same period. This is a huge reversal of fortune for grocers. Between 2003 and 2007, grocers share of sales for staples slipped by about $7 billion a year as rivals lured consumers away to restaurants and high-end specialty retailers. Unit sales for home-use food staples rose 2.6% this April from a year earlier, even as overall food sales declined by 3.1%.

According to The Economist magazine, backyard chickens are "having a moment" in the USA. Hatcheries that deliver chicks by mail have reported backlogs. Rob Ludlow, the owner of BackyardChickens.com, told the magazine that his forum has 35,000 members and have 100 new people sign up everyday. Currently, backyard chicken enthusiasts meet in at least two dozen cities, from Seattle to Tallahassee to discuss the how-to’s of small-scale poultry production. Recently, Austin, Texas, had 637 people go on its first Funky Chicken Coop Tour. Due to public pressure, many cities are relaxing their ordinances against backyard hens as long as no crowing roosters are included. Some cities that haven’t yet relaxed regulations are finding protesters on their City Hall steps wearing "I Love Chickens" T-shirts. The Economist credits this new interest in chicken raising to the poor economy. Currently, more Americans are growing gardens than anytime since World War II due to today’s economic pressures.