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Thomson Reuters Poll: 58% of People Prefer Organic Food

Thomson Reuters just released the results of a poll (link is a PDF) they completed and said that a majority of the U.S. population (58%) prefers organic food.

Aside from the fact that this report is a serious victory for organic advocates, the data is truly fascinating. What stuck out to me the most was that there is a clear preference for organic food by more educated and younger people. Key highlights include:

– Nearly 63% of people under the age of 35 prefer organic food.

– 38% of people over 65 prefer non-organic food.

– 31% of people prefer non-organic food.

– 56% of people who make $25,000 or less and 60.8% of people who make more than $100,000 both prefer organic food.

– 63.5% of people who have a college degree or more prefer organic food while 52.7% of people who have a high school degree or less prefer organic food.

– 34.2% of people are concerned about toxins in non-organic food.

– 12.9% of people believe that organic food tastes better.

– 17.2% believe that organic food is better for the environment.

WHAT SURPRISED ME

* I was shocked that only 13% of people think that organic food tastes better. They obviously haven’t tasted the difference between an organic peach and non-organic peach. It is night and day as to which one is better.

* I was surprised that 31% of people actually prefer non-organic food. Maybe because of the cost.

* Education level and age are bigger factors for prefering organic food than income level. When it comes to a preference for organic food, income levels almost don’t seem to matter.

MY TAKE

A few things:

1) The fact that a majority of our country prefers organic food should send a signal to DC. We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing non-organic food yet most of country prefers organic.

This is nothing more than politicians doing what is best for them (not what the public wants) and meeting the needs of special interest groups (Big Ag).

We need to be putting more money into organic food. It is what people want.

2) The fact that less than 20% of people believe that organic food is better for the environment means that the organic industry is doing a poor job of educating people about how organic is actually good for the environment. Organic food as a rallying point for the environment is an issue that needs to be further exploited.

What do you find most interesting about the results from the poll?