Is organic food too expensive?

One of the first questions I’m asked when I let people know that I prefer to consume organic food is, “How can you afford to eat organic food on your salary?” Okay, so I’m the first to admit it, my annual income only places me marginally above the official poverty line. But that isn’t to say that I don’t have priorities in my life. I have a young family – a wife and two children to be exact. And having spent quite a bit of time in the food processing industry, I know what goes on behind the scenes. And let’s just say, I’m not prepared to accept the routine shortcuts that conventional food processors are forced to take by the large supermarket chains they are subservient to. Call me nuts, but I don’t want my daughter growing breasts at seven years old as a direct consequence of the hormones that were routinely pumped into the battery hens whose eggs she ate. And I’m not overly keen for my son to undergo minor surgery at our local hospital only to discover that, due to the rampant overuse of antibiotics in our food chain leading to yet another outbreak of antibiotic resistant staphylococcus aureus, they’ll have to amputate his leg below the knee in order to save his life. Am I alarmist? No. I’m just a dad with priorities.

Personally, I’d rather spend a few extra dollars to feed my family a small quantity of high quality organic produce. The alternative, as I see it, requires subjecting my family to the constant moving target of what constitutes “acceptable” parameters for human safety. Does that mean I have to stick to a budget? Yes, of course. Does it mean that my wife and I have to be creative in how we shop? Definitely. Okay, so I’m fairly certain that the extra cost associated with organic food is worth it. But why should it cost more you ask? Well, here are the reasons I believe it’s reasonable for me to expect to pay a premium for organic food.

Labour – one of the downsides of organic production methods is that they tend to be labour intensive. Because there are no pesticides or herbicides used on an organic farm, more people are involved in undertaking routine tasks, such as the removal of weeds in between rows of vegetables. On the face of it, this might not seem like it should add much in the way of additional cost to your box of fruit and vegetables, but if you’ve ever spent more than a couple of hours in the garden pulling weeds, you’ve probably got some idea of how time consuming – and therefore expensive – weeding can be.

Scale – organic farms tend to be smaller than conventional farms. I don’t think it necessarily has to be this way. In fact, if more consumers switched to consuming organic food, I’m sure we’d see many larger organic farms pop up. But at the moment, your average organic farm tends to be a small-scale operation. The small scale of organic farming operations means that the associated fixed costs and overheads must be distributed across much smaller produce volumes than conventional farms. Unfortunately, this increases the cost to you and me.

Compliance – both organic farms and organic processors must adhere to strict certification guidelines. Apart from the obvious fees associated with achieving and maintaining certification, an enormous amount of staff time, effort and energy is expended in ensuring all necessary specifications are adhered to. These are additional costs that are not incurred by conventional farms or conventional processors.

Retailers – I’ve spoke directly with some retailers that have told me that organic lines don’t move as fast as some conventional lines. For them, this equates to risk and therefore a price premium must be paid by all customers purchasing organic products. And I suspect that some, but by no means all, retailers are riding the wave of organic popularity all the way to the beach at our expense. But the party won’t last indefinitely for these retailers. So, shop around.

Conventional lies – I believe that if we were to look at the true economic cost of conventional food, we’d find that the price society as a whole pays for it would be much higher than its shelf price. Pesticides, antibiotics, herbicides, additives, genetic modification – what is the true cost of the health care people require, and will in the future require, as a result of some of these nasties? After all, what is the cost associated with being told that GM crops do actually cause bowel and colon cancer? Pretty high I would have thought! What was the cost for numerous Britains being told that, as a direct consequence of cows being fed the spinal tissue from other cows to facilitate cost savings, they had developed a rare from of bovine spongiform encephalitis, more commonly known as “Mad Cow Disease”. Did the price of the beef mince they picked up from their local supermarket incorporate the real cost to society? No way. But did the artificially low price, and the cynical cost saving use of spinal tissue fed to ruminants, enable a few large corporates to benefit at the expense of both consumers and honest farmers? You’re damn right it did!

As consumers, what we need is strong Government that’s prepared to stand up to corporate profiteering at the expense of human health. In the interim, we need to make our own choices. So, next time you’re agonising over the price of organic food, as I do from time to time, ask yourself what the true price of the conventional alternative really is. Is organic food really worth it? I think so. How about you?