SERTAOZINHO, Brazil — Growing up on his family's sugar plantation, Leontino Balbo slept like a dream. The hard work, fresh air and lullaby of the sugar mill's machinery brought him peace.
Years later, the place would keep Balbo up at night. After becoming agricultural director of the farm, Balbo took a giant risk.
He threw away things his family had learned. He embraced things his family had forgotten. He turned the farm organic, abandoning pesticides, chemical fertilizers and methods of planting and harvesting that had served the family's bottom line for years.
Sugar cane yields fell. Critics snickered. The men who were not just his blood but also his bosses asked, "You sure you know what you're doing?" And Balbo lay awake, asking that of himself but vowing to see the project through.
Now the Sao Francisco mill in Sertaozinho boasts higher yields than ever, some of the highest in Brazil's sugar-rich Sao Paulo state. Fellow cane growers come to Balbo for advice. And, capitalizing on a lack of organic raw ingredients in the United States, Grupo Balbo supplies several prominent American food makers, including Whole Foods' private label and Newman's Own.
"I felt the pressure so heavily," Balbo said, conducting a tour of his cane fields in a sport utility vehicle powered by ethanol produced from organic sugar. "I was so thin. I had to take medicine to sleep.... But I do not like easy things. My family does not like easy things."
The difficult conversion to organic has paid dividends beyond even Balbo's hopes. The dark green cane in the farm's rolling fields can rise 15 feet high, and yields have shot up about 20% since the farm started converting to organic in 1995.
Sugar is Balbo's chief export. Almost half of all organic sugar consumed in the United States, and nearly 40% worldwide, comes from Balbo's Sao Francisco mill. Balbo's own brand of organic food products, called Native, is beginning to appear in the United States.
Balbo's organic products join others from Brazil in U.S. stores, as well as items such as raspberries from Chile, broccoli from Mexico and blueberries from Quebec.
Sales of organic food and beverages have increased an average of 20% a year in the United States and reached an estimated $14.5 billion in 2005.
Although the number of U.S. farmers growing organically has surged, they still cannot meet U.S. consumer demand. So food makers look abroad.
