Increasingly, consumers are demanding that food manufacturers and retailers pay careful attention to how food is produced and sourced. A Canadian-based organic cereal manufacturer, Nature’s Path  – the company’s cereal is sold in Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s –  has gone even further, launching an innovative crop-sharing model with local farmers that places the company as a partner in food production. As reported in Civil Eats, Nature’s Path has purchased 5,640 acres of farmland in Canada and northern Montana.

Why?

One answer lies in rising consumer demand for organic products (projected to experience double-digit growth in the next several years). While organic production is increasing, the U.S. still lags. Nature’s Path wants to encourage more farmers to adopt organic production measures…so they take some of the risk out of that by agreeing to an innovative crop share arrangement.

Leilani Clark reports for @Civil Eats:

“Ultimately, the company’s leaders would like nothing less than to effect a “wholesale change in farming communities, where organic becomes known as a real opportunity,” says Falck. Take it one step further and they’d like to see non-organic farmers open to the financial, environmental, and health benefits of organic farming and make the switch.”

Anna Jones-Crabtree, a Montana farmer who is partnering with Nature’s Path, has this to say:

“Companies whose product line is dependent on organic grain may end up going overseas to import some of the supply if we don’t have adequate farmland to meet the growing demand.”