Organic Foods – Why It Cost More?

Because of the sudden shift of the society towards health and wellness, people are turning to healthy choices, especially when it comes to food products. Organic foods and products are fast becoming popular these days. Who would not want to eat healthy foods with no chemicals and which is good to environment? But sad to say, not everyone can afford this kind of luxury. People from poor countries cannot afford this kind of food even if they want to. Only rich people can afford this kind of food as it is more expensive to grow than conventional farm goods.

Organic foods are grown in way that the farmers restrict synthetic materials during production. With the organic production, the usual non-organic pesticides, herbicides and insecticides is very limited and saved to be the last resort if ever. But contrary to the popular belief is that some non-organic fertilizers are still used. Also, about the livestock, they must be raise without the usual use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones, and generally fed a healthy diet. In many countries nowadays, organic foods that are produce should not be genetically modified.

Organic food is way better for everyone and their family. The organic foods have more vitamins, enzymes, minerals and it tastes far better than intensively ­farmed produce. It is also free from pesticides, insecticides, growth hormones, fertilizers, antibiotics and a lot of other toxic artificial flavorings, additives, preservatives and colorings. So the question is why do the organic foods cost more if it has less added chemicals?

One of the main reasons why the commercially farmed foods are cheaper to buy in the shops is that it is subsidized by the taxes of the citizens. The conventional agrochemical agriculture is greatly subsidized by the taxpayers through the government, wherein organic farming receives no subsidies from the government at all.

Some of the things organic farmers can’t use that conventional farmers can is the sewage sludge, which is very cheap to buy, and chemical fertilizers, which are both cheap to buy and cheap to transport. Instead, the organic farmers fertilize their land with the use of compost and animal manure, which is bulkier and more expensive to ship.

Also, while every conventional farmer can use every piece of land to grow the crops that has the highest prices, the organic farmers have to use crop rotation to keep their soil healthy. The organic farmers earn less because instead of planting a cash crop on every piece of land every year, they rotate fields and plant cover crops that are plowed to improve the soil’s nutrients for the long term. When the farmers are rotating crops, they are not necessarily growing all your highest value crops all the time, which is different than a conventional system. Also, aside from the organic crops, the organic feed for cattle and other livestock can cost twice as much as conventional feed.

That is one of the reasons why organic foods are really not available to everyone. They are more expensive to grow than the conventional way of farming. The expensive price can’t be afforded by the poor so only the rich can have the access in these kinds of foods. Sad to say, this is the reality nowadays. But as the popularity of the organic foods is increasing, the government may one day create a solution to grow organic foods in cheaper ways and be available to everyone.