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Organic food no longer has to use up your whole paycheck it seems Costco has finally toppled the king of organics. Not only has the wholesalerbeen outselling other conventional retailers in organics for three years, but in 2015, itofficially surpassed Whole Foods in organic food sales, reporting a whopping $4 billion as compared to Whole Foods $3.5 billion.

The recentsales victory was a turning point for the development of inexpensive organic food: Whole Foods has been reporting difficulties of late,closing nine storesafter its sixth straight quarter of same-store declines, a period the Chicago Tribune has calledthe stores worst sales slump in more than a decade.

Meanwhile, Costco and other retailers like Trader Joes have been growing their organic offerings and attracting customers with lower prices.Blogger Whole New Mom writes that she was surprised when, after transitioning to an organic, whole foods diet, her grocery bills didnt actually change much, and via a price analysis, she found that over 90 percent of organic and whole food items were less expensive at Costco, and in many cases, the price difference was dramatic.

But Costcos victory didnt happen overnight: the wholesalerhas actually been working toward this goalfor more thanfive years, according to HeatherShavey, assistant vice president and general merchandise manager at Costco, who toldWell + Goodthat the company decided to invest in organics when many other retailers thought it was a fad that would pass.

Instead, Costco took an interest in not only expanding its own organic offerings but also in the organic landscape itself. Currently, less than one percent of farmland in the U.S. is certified organic, and with a minimal 2.5 percent annual growth, the market cant sustain increasing demand for organic food, which has averaged a ten percent annual growth over the past five years.

Costco was going to have a hard time keeping up with the demand for organics unless it made some changes to these statistics.

As the largest U.S. retailer of organics, Costco is in a good position to address the supply shortage, Ronnie Cummins, the international director of the Organic Consumers Association, a nonprofit group that advocates for sustainable food production and consumption, told The Huffington Post, and this is exactly what the retailer did.

In April of last year, Costco launched a program to lend money to farmers to purchase new land and equipment in exchange for first dibs on organic produce.The storehas even purchased its own cattle and contracted with owners of organic fields in Nebraska to raise them.

Through these and other efforts, Costco is not only making organic food more affordable, its also ensuring that we have enough organic food to meet ever-growing demand its no wonder the wholesaler has become Americas favorite place to buy organic food.

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Emily Monaco is an American food and culture writer based in Paris. She loves uncovering the stories behind ingredients and exposing the face of our food system, so that consumers can make educated choices. Her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Vice Munchies, and Serious Eats.

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Is Costco the New Whole Foods? - Organic Authority