How Stuff Works: Organic food prices

Lots of people have decided to "go organic. They buy organic fruits and vegetables, organic meats and milk, even organic bread and breakfast cereal.

If you are moving in an organic direction, here is a common question: Why do organic fruits and vegetables cost more than "normal" fruits and vegetables? An organic plant is one not needing any insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc., which cost money. And it is not using any inorganic fertilizers, which also cost money. So ... if you take away these things that cost money, how can the price go up? It seems like a scam.

Many researchers have studied this, and it really is interesting to understand what causes the price increase. It tells you a lot about the differences between organic food production and conventional food production. The University of Wisconsin is one place that has done research, actually growing different crops organically and conventionally and comparing the results. A paper entitled, "Organic potatoes: they can be grown, but can they be profitable?" is enlightening. Let's open the hood and see how organic food gets produced.

What are the costs of organic production? They definitely are higher, and sometimes for unexpected reasons. One of the more interesting is the start up cost. In order for a farm to convert from conventional farming to organic farming, it has to follow organic practices for three years before being certified. Growers have to do this in order to clear the inorganic fertilizers and pesticides from the soil. During these three years, farmers can't get a premium price for producing organic crops because they are not yet certified, but they also can't use any of the chemicals that boost yields. So they have three years of the worst of both worlds. As a farmer, you might just let the land lay fallow for three years, growing alfalfa or something similar, and eat the cost of doing so.

Why alfalfa? Because alfalfa is one of the few plants (clover is another) that fixes nitrogen from the air and deposits it in the soil. Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient. In conventional farming, the nitrogen usually comes in a bag of fertilizer from a factory. When growing organically, you can't use factory nitrogen. The article points out that an organic potato farmer might grow potatoes one year, alfalfa the next, in a rotation that gives potatoes the nitrogen they need. That rotation increases costs.

A farmer can also choose to use organic fertilizers. Remember how the Indians taught the Pilgrims to plant their corn seeds with a small fish as a fertilizer? The modern equivalent to that is fish meal fertilizer. Cottonseed meal is another organic fertilizer that has a fairly high level of nitrogen in it. But these fertilizers are quite a bit more expensive than inorganic fertilizers.

What about bugs and weeds? Without insecticides and herbicides, what do you do instead? The answer to weeds is to cultivate more, dragging harrows and cultivators through the crop to mechanically remove weeds. To thwart insects, farmers can plant at different times to try to dodge infestations, enlist beneficial insects like lady beetles and parasitic wasps, and use natural chemicals like vinegar in place of more toxic ones.

These practices raise the price of producing potatoes. The practice of crop rotation raises the price of potatoes more (an acre of alfalfa brings in less cash than an acre of potatoes). And then there is the problem with yield. You get fewer pounds of potatoes per acre when you raise potatoes organically. The researchers summarized their results this way: "Organic potatoes yielded an average of 21,200 pounds per acre over all three varieties, while conventional methods averaged 32,800 pounds per acre."

So the farmers get two pounds of organic potatoes for every three pounds they got by conventional methods. And the costs of producing those two pounds of organic potatoes are higher. And there is the cost of the alfalfa rotation and the 3-year start up cost. So obviously, organic potatoes have to cost more in the store. Quite a bit more actually, in order to be profitable.

The same kind of thing happens with any organic crop. The yields are lower and the production costs are higher. That's why organic food costs more than conventional food. However, there is a benefit that goes with the cost. All of those toxic chemicals are removed from the air, the farm's runoff water and the groundwater. It's a big win for everyone.

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Contact Marshall Brain at marshall.brain@howstuffworks.com.