FOOD

...is there a broad market for using organic foods?

I recently saw a movie called The Corporation, a documentary that had a blurb about Monsanto's impact on milk products> It basically reported how their milk production injections affected bacteria and antibiotic levels in the milk and they had to cover up the story. Their genetically modified food products may help feed the world, but some things are not necessary.

I have three local grocery store chains: Lowes's Foods, Harris Teeter, Kroger, and Walmart. Forget about Walmart. Kroger relegates their organic and natural foods section to the vitamins area beside baby food and bread, but Harris Teeter and Lowe's Foods integrate their natural and organic brands into the regular isles. The organic cereals are beside the Kelloggs brands. I know shelf space is important to big distributors, so this is a big move. Harris Teeter and Lowe's organic brands are from mosstly private firms like Cascadian Farms.

Check your local co-op and invest in them.....they'll pay you as co-owner!
Example ...Wilmington NC's Tidal Creek

A basic listing of some public companies that distribute oranic products can be found at the The Organic Pages.

The largest chain natural food stores are Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Markets. There stocks have been doing well, but there are some big differences between the two as far as financial statistics.

WholeFoods, wfmi, has positive earnings and 30% growth. Their market cap is over 8.5 billion on sales revenue last year of 4.5 billion. AND they have positive free cash flow ( a sign of a well run and profitable company). ANother interesting positive is that their revenue per share of 70 million is above their book value per share of 20 million. Their stock is up nearly 70% from last year to $130. Recent news is about them opening up a store in London.

Wild Oats Markets, oats , stock has been hovering around $12, up from around $8 in May. Key statistics for Wild Oats reveals debt and losses, although revenues were over 1 billion last year. They have planty of cash, but a negative cash flow. Their market cap is around $357 million, much smaller the Whole Foods.

Two other interesting stocks in the organics food mix:
United Natural Foods, unfi, supplies food to these two growing stores and trades around $30.

Raw food supplier Sunopta,stkl , stock has been hovering aroun $6 this summer. Their business is to supply soy products to large manufacturers.

More on Food later, I'm hungry....