Organic Food Retailing and the Conventionalisation Debate

We propose an empirical study of French sales in conventional food retailing and in specialised organic stores for 2012. We examine the plant or animal origin of food products, as an indicator of the environmental and health impacts of sales, and their degree of processing, as an indicator of their health impact. The results indicate that sales of organic food products are more plant-based and less processed in specialised organic stores than in conventional retail stores, two criteria for a better health and environmental impact. In conventional stores, organic sales are more plant-based and less processed than conventional sales. Organic sales in conventional stores show some specificity, having the highest share of particular product ranges lacking a clear health or environmental impact, such as processed culinary ingredients or unprocessed or minimally processed animal products. Building a typology of buyers in conventional stores, we find that even purchases by buyers with the highest organic purchase intensity in conventional stores are less plant-based and more processed than average purchases in specialised organic stores. Our results characterise to what extent some of the holistic environmental and health impacts of organic agriculture are lower in conventional retail stores than in specialised organic stores in France in 2012.