Chuck Eggert, founder and CEO of Tualatin, Ore.-based Pacific Foods, predicts that large packaged-food makers seeking to bring out organic product lines will face supply headaches.
Credit: Leah Nash for The Wall Street Journal

Last year, executives at organic cereal maker Nature’s Path Foods Inc. grew so frustrated with organic-grain shortfalls that they took a radical step: They bought a farm.

The three-decade-old Canadian company plunked down more than $2 million for 2,800 acres of Montana cropland, part of an effort to seize greater control of its supplies of wheat, oats and other ingredients. “We just want to secure our own future,” said founder Arran Stephens.

Nature’s Path is among a number of organic-food purveyors taking steps to tackle supply constraints that are hampering the growth of one of the hottest categories of the U.S. food industry. Companies including soup […]