Women make up majority of organic food shoppers

• The 29-year-old Bridgeport woman tries to buy organic foods when she can, particularly fruits and vegetables.
• Sales of organic products reached $12.7 billion in 2004, and have shown a steady growth rate of 20 percent per year over the past dozen years, according to the Organic Trade Association, a 1,600-member trade organization based in Massachusetts.
• Organic products also are becoming a more common sight, not just in specialty shops like Nature's Way, but also in large chain supermarkets, such as Shaw's.
• The OTA defines "organic" foods using the guidelines of the Organic Foods Production Act, established by the United States Department of Agriculture.
• In general, the act defines organic foods as those produced largely without chemicals, such as pesticides and hormones.
• The OTA doesn't keep track of what percentage of organic sales are to female customers, but spokeswoman Holly Givens guesses it's a large number.
• "We know that women have significant influence over what comes into their homes," she said.
• Women also tend to be health conscious, Givens said, and it's usually some sort of health event --- be it an allergy, an illness or even the birth of a child --- that leads people to turn to organic produce.
• Nimesh Bhargava, chief clinical nutrition manager at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport said that, purely by not including pesticides, organic produce is healthier than its chemically enhanced counterparts.
• Yet, both those in the organic food industry and those who buy organic food say health is the main reason women buy natural products.
• For Dolores Gray, owner and founder of Nature's Way, health issues led her to do more than shop for natural foods.
• She went to conferences, learned about nutrition, and opened the store, which now sells a variety of natural products, including foods.