The forces behind Eat My View, which collected more than 100,000 signatures, and other similar campaigns must have been rubbing their eyes at the sight of Michelle Obama armed with a shovel on the White House lawn.

She had come to turn the sill on an organic garden; their dream was becoming a reality.

The White House is giving over a sizeable chunk – 1100 square feet in fact – to plant 55 different vegetables, fruit, berries and herbs year round (in keeping with the seasons, of course).

Most of its produce will cater for the White House and visiting dignitaries but some will also be donated to a soup kitchen down the road.

Launching the project, Mrs Obama said she wanted her daughters to eat healthy food and be reminded of where food comes from.

It’s a message the supporters of Eat My View, including prominent activists Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, have been pushing for years. Everyone needs to look at the source of their food and eat as locally as possible. And who better to lead from the front than the new president and his family?

Fresh is best: "Deep green" consumers will stand by the organic food sector. Picture: ILoveButter

First the bad news. As previously reported, growth in the organic food sector has slowed considerably as a result of the economic downturn. This is particularly true in countries regarded as the heavy hitters in the industry – the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

In the US, for example, sales were up 5.6 percent on the previous year last December, compared with 25.6 percent growth a year earlier. In Germany, growth has slowed from 14 percent in late 2007 to 10 percent late last year. In Britain, the mood was even more sombre, with a drop from 16 percent to a mere 2 percent last November.

But here’s the good news. While the industry has clearly taken a big hit worldwide, it is growing, which is more than can be said of much of the economy. And, apart from Britain, where some pundits predict sales will go into the red, the outlook is for continued growth.

Tom Pirovano, director of industry insights at market research firm The Nielsen Co, told Reuters news agency that he believed most organic consumers were committed to the sector.

“I’m not convinced that we are going to see big declines in organics any time soon,” he said.

Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, agrees that core supporters are simply not prepared to return to a highly-processed diet.

“They are trying to stretch their money but they are not willing to stop buying organic,” he said. “We think in the long run the prognosis is good. The energy crisis and climate change can only really be addressed with organic production.”

Similarly, in Germany and France, the mood is one of optimism. Elisabeth Mercer, the head of Agence Bio, the country’s main organic food group, says demand is still rising.

“In Europe, apart maybe from the UK where the market seems more fragile, I do not believe there will be a drop in consumption this year although growth rates may be less spectacular,” she said.

Even in the UK, Patrick Holden, the director of the Soil Association, the country’s leading organic certifying body, remains upbeat, particularly about local organic produce.

Like Ronnie Cummins, he draws the distinction between “deep green”, or committed, consumers and “light green”, or swinging, consumers. He says the former constitute 80 percent of demand for organic produce and make their choices based on health and environmental reasons not cost. These, he believes, are in for the long haul.

Indeed, despite the historic change in the White House, some organic campaigners fear more of the same under President Barack Obama.

They point to the Monsanto advisers on his team as evidence he was less inclined to listen to the grass roots than his rhetoric might have led some to believe.

And they believe the charismatic 44th President showed his hand even further, when he announced former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, as his choice for Secretary of Agriculture.

As rumours grew that Vilsack was the hot favourite for the job, a petition began circulating opposing his appointment.

Critics claim he is a friend to biotechnology (he was the industry’s governor of the year back in 2001) and is unlikely to promote a change in national food policy.

Rather, he has a record of supporting the likes of Monsanto in its bid to control seed production and push the development of GM crops.

Oddly enough, “Big Organic”, along with some NGOs and other activists started a counter campaign in support of Obama’s man.

Even those who don’t necessarily believe he is the worst choice Obama could have made, however, don’t see him as a force for change.

“Vilsack isn’t likely to lead U.S. food/agriculture policy in new, more sustainable and socially just directions, wrote commentator Tom Philpott on environmental site Gristmill in the midst of the debate. “At least not without a real push from below… he has been a fervent booster of the genetically modified seed and biofuel industries – both of which proffer what I think are dead-end “solutions” to environmental problems and offer little to any but the largest-scale and most commodity-oriented farmers.”

His appointment was officially confirmed just hours after Obama took the oath of office.

In the lead-up to Obama’s big day, there were many prominent voices calling on him to take food more seriously. Leading commentator Michael Pollan wrote an open letter to the incoming president, urging him to act as “Farmer in Chief”, while foodie Alice Waters led a campaign for a “Kitchen Cabinet”, asking the White House to lead the way on healthy, sustainable cooking.

Then there is the much publicised push to get the new president to set up an organic garden at the White House.

All dreams that few now believe will become a reality, despite reports the new First Lady favours organic produce.

Perhaps the election of an African-American to the highest office in the land was shock enough. Organic farming as the way of farming might be a step too far.

Los Angeles billionaire Ronald Burkle announced that he had bought a seven percent stake in Whole Foods over the past few months, news that saw the share price rise almost 23 percent to $12.27.

Burkle, who also bought a similar stake in Barnes & Noble book chain via his Yucaipa Co investment arm, believes shares in the United States’ leading organic retailer have been undervalued

Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Burkle said “there are substantial opportunities for the company to improve operations and its pricing image while maintaining its high-quality product offering”.

Sometimes nicknamed Whole Paycheck for the perception that the chain is overpriced and therefore only for those with high disposable income, Whole Foods has certainly been feeling the pinch as the American recession bites deeper.

Shares dropped more than 75 percent in 2008 and net income fell $1.5 million to the quarter ended September 28, down from $34 million in the same period a year earlier.

The Austin-based company has also been embroiled in expensive legal battles with the Federal Trade Commission over its acquisition of rival Wild Oats.

The scandal erupted after it was found that infant formula milk had been contaminated with the chemical, which is commonly used in plastics and fertilisers. It was later found in other food products, prompting an almost immediate backlash against imports from China elsewhere in Asia, with many opting for organic produce.

Now more locals, concerned about food safety, are embracing organic, too.

Shanghai Organics, the operator of China’s two largest organic farms, said demand for organic was already on the rise before the scandal hit. 

Managing director Guy Weiner told Channel NewsAsia that most of his customers are now local residents. “Chickens that lay eggs on our farm eat organic food so after the scandal with the eggs in China and Hong Kong, many of our customers started calling us.”

The broadcaster also reported a move to introduce more organic fare in restaurants. While some have long used select products, such as organic eggs, on their menus, more are searching out producers to enable them to go 100 percent organic.

This may prove a challenge in a country that relies on cheap, mass produced food, but with an estimated two million hectares of land undergoing organic cultivation there is greater hope for the future.

The market has enjoyed double digit growth of up to 20 percent a year for several years, but research released in the wake of the country’s economic meltdown shows a significant drop. While it was still on the up, the natural and organic sector only managed 4 percent growth in the four weeks to October 4.

“Organics continue to grow and outpace many categories,” the Nielsen Company reported. “However, recent weeks are showing slower growths, possibly a start of an organics growth plateau.”

Experts believe core consumers who regard organic produce as a necessity not a fad will stick by the industry, but those who were merely dipping their tastebuds into the sector may opt out or, at the least, not buy as many organic items as before.

Laurie Demeritt, the president of the Hartman Group, a research company for the health and wellness industry, told The New York Times that those products marketed to children would hold ground because of parental concern for the wellbeing of their offspring, but those targeted at adults may struggle.

The economy has “crystallized the tradeoffs that consumers are willing to make,” she told the newspaper. “Fair trade is nice, but fair trade may fall off the shopping list where organic milk may not.”

The pain is certainly being felt at organic chain store Whole Foods Market, where stocks have plummeted more than 70 percent.  Dairy producer Organic Valley has also seen sales slow in the past few months.

Other organic suppliers said they believed that although consumers may turn their backs on bigger luxuries, such as cars and holidays, and eat out less they will treat themselves to better quality produce to cook at home.

It’s not something reflected in recent results for the king of the fast food industry. McDonald’s reported an 11 percent rise in profits, up to $1.19 billion, compared with $1.07 billion the previous year, as penny-pinching sent more people in search of cheap meal deals.

According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, store sales increased 7.1 percent globally during the quarter, with an investment strategist saying the company was benefiting from “consumers not spending as much money on discretionary food purchases”.

Front and centre of the march was renowned gardening guru Peter Cundall, who described the push for GM food as dangerous, arguing it would harm Western Australia’s export image as a “clean, green state”.

The fiesty octogenarian, who recently stepped down as host of the long running television series Gardening Australia, said the push for GM crops was being driven by greed and he would never retire from fighting greed and corruption. (He is also an outspoken opponent of a pulp mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley, where he lives.)

A passionate advocate for organic gardening, Peter used an area fondly known as Pete’s Vegie Patch at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens to show gardeners how they could use crop rotation to grow the best quality fruit and vegetables in the own backyard. The corner has become a huge tourist attraction.

Anti-GM protesters in Western Australia are concerned that the new Liberal-National Government will lift the moratorium on genetically modified crops in the state. In the lead-up to the September poll, Colin Barnett told voters if elected his government would allow GM cotton crops to go ahead on the Ord River in the state’s north and commercial trials of GM canola in the state’s south from next year.

“To simply say that we are going to ban GM means that WA farmers could fall behind in their profitability, even their viability might suffer,” he said at the time.

The then premier, Alan Carpenter, maintained his strong opposition to the introduction of GM crops, saying there was strong demand for GM-free crops in key markets such as Japan and Europe.

More than 27,000 signed a petition, Say No to GMO, to present to new Agriculture Minister Terry Redman. The petition says the moratorium must be extended beyond 2008 to protect WA’s status as a GM-free producer.

Colorado company Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, which has 27 stores in the US, will open two more in Texas in coming months and Planet Organic, the UK’s largest retailer of organic food and products, has already branched out in two more areas of London.

Natural Grocers, which sells 100 percent organic produce as well as supplements and speciality items, is due to open its latest store in Amarillo in November and another is slated for Austin early next year, bringing the total in the Lone Star State to three.

The chain’s co-president, Kemper Isely, told the Austin Business Journal that he is not worried about the prospect of moving into the heartland of organic and natural foods leader Whole Foods Market, describing their relationship as “synergistic”.

And if the store does well, Natural Grocers will consider opening another two in the city. Isely said the company is also looking at four more outlets in northern Texas, as well as locations in Utah, Wyoming, Arizona and Oklahoma.

Planet Organic, the UK’s first fully certified organic supermarket, now has five outlets in London, after opening a branch in Muswell Hill in August and another in Islington in September, and hopes to have 13 stores within a few years.

The company, which sells all natural, mostly-organic foods and guarantees products free of additives, hydrogenated fats and genetically modified organisms, launched in 1995 in fashionable Notting Hill. It has since won many awards, including several from the well-regarded Soil Association. 

“We think long and hard about what we sell; how it has been grown and how far it has travelled. Taking care of these things helps us all to take better care of ourselves, our families and our environment,” says founder Renee Elliott.

Of Planet Organic’s 9000 products more than half are food items, and while the company states its aim is to be wholly organic some food items are still not available organically. In these instances, Planet Organic stores stock natural alternatives which meet their strict product standards and phase them out as organic becomes available. Its 100 percent organic categories include fruit and vegetables, British cheese, and bakery items.

Customers can also eat at the in-store bistro, or break their shopping expedition with an organic tea or coffee, or fresh juice or smoothie.

The Cornucopia Institute wants the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take action against operators who it says contravene federal organic regulations before it’s too late.

“This could be the end of the organic industry as we know it,” co-director Mark A. Kastel says. A report on the institute’s website maintains that “the proliferation of industrial-scale dairies has bloated the organic milk supply, inflated the price of feed for dairy cows, and resulted in a financial crisis for family farmers”.

He is scathing about the conditions for livestock at the Phoenix-based Shamrock Farms, which operates an industrial dairy milking about 11,000 cows, and the Rockview Farms Dairy of California, which runs a huge dairy in Nevada.

The institute, which has also been a vocal critic of the industry’s biggest dairy Dean Foods, which operates the Horizon label, argues if the organic industry is to survive it needs consumers to wise up and only spend their milk money on those outlets that truly live up to organic principles.

“Consumers who pay premium prices for organic products do so believing that they are produced with a different kind of environmental ethic, a different kind of animal husbandry ethic, and social justice for family farmers,” says Mark. “Our report, Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk, and the accompanying dairy brands scorecard will empower consumers and wholesale buyers who want to invest their food dollars to protect hard-working family farmers who are in danger of being washed off the land by a tidal wave of organic milk from these factory mega-farms.”

The organic scorecard awards dairy brands a certain number of “cows”, from five down to none, according to their organic credentials. More than 100 brands, covering everything from butter to yogurt, are ranked.

The influential Organic Consumers Association (OCA) says it urges its members to refer to Cornucopia’s scorecard before buying dairy.  “We are carefully examining Cornucopia’s new findings and are likely to ramp up our pressure campaign to force these bad actors to change their business models or to exit the industry,” OCA director Ronnie Cummins says.

The dairy industry in the United States accounts for $4 billion, or about 20 percent, of revenue in the organic sector.

And so it was with the passing of Paul Newman at the weekend, with many describing him as having lived an “exemplary life”. The difference, however, is it’s hard to argue with that or any of the accolades that have been bestowed upon the owner of those sparkling blue eyes since the world learnt of his death from cancer at 83.

He was certainly more than memorable in many a flick – hustling the best in Cool Hand Luke and The Color of Money (for which he won an Oscar); knocking back booze and hurling insults in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; or as one half of a dynamic duo with Robert Redford in The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

But Newman also clocked up plenty of brownie points off-screen. Yes, there was his celebrated 50-year union with Joanne Woodward (“I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?”); his sense of humour and love of practical jokes (he once had a crushed car installed in Redford’s house) and car racing (one of his last screen credits is as the voice of Doc in the animated Cars); and the founding of the Scott Newman Center, set up to warn of the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse after he lost his son to a drug overdose.

He was also a passionate liberal who was thrilled to find himself on Richard Nixon’s list of enemies.

But it was in the unlikely realm of the kitchen where Newman had his greatest impact. He turned his homemade salad dressing into a global brand that dishes out all of the company’s profits to those most in need. Started in 1983 with his friend and writer A.E. Hotchner with the motto “shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good”, Newman’s Own has given away more than $250 million around the world, courtesy of that dressing and some other well-chosen ranges – all overseen by the man himself.

Newman has also been credited with helping to bring organic food into the mainstream, although he would have been the first to admit it was his daughter Nell who was the driving force. In order to convince her dad it was a good idea to launch an organic range, she prepared him an organic Thanksgiving dinner. It must have been delicious because it worked.

Bearing the slogan “great products that just happen to be organic”, Newman’s Own Organics came out at a time when organic was about as far from the mainstream as modelling is from world peace. The branch of the company, which is headed up by Nell, now has a product line of 55.

“He did a great job of endorsing the product and bringing it to a mainstream audience,”  Viella Ship, director of marketing for the California Certified Organic Farmers, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “He was an authentic guy, and that helped the product. Now if it were Donald Trump trying to sell organics, I don’t know if it’d work.”

Most definitely not. Unlike the bouffant one, Paul Newman was the genuine article. “I’m not running for sainthood,” he once said of the charitable work that gave him the most satisfaction. “I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

The site dedicated to his charitable business was brought to a crashing halt by the flood of wellwishers, visitors temporarily having to make do with a well-worded tribute to the man who began it all. A modern message for a truly remarkable man who will be missed for more reasons than a star on Hollywood’s much vaunted Walk of Fame might suggest.