Community | February 03, 2010 | 37 comments

Organic food is cheaper than conventional food.

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lookatmypix
"The paradox is there's this view that organic is elitist, it's expensive, it's a lifestyle choice for people who can afford it. As far as I'm concerned it's not elitist to believe, everyone should have the right to high-quality, nutritious food from sustainable farming systems. What's elitist is that a handful of corporations have got a vice-like grip on the farming systems and food."




Agro-chemical agriculture is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer through the government, organic farming isn't.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributes between $10 billion and $30 billion in cash subsidies to farmers and owners of farmland each year. The particular amount depends on market prices for crops, the level of disaster payments, and other factors. More than 90 percent of agriculture subsidies go to farmers of five crops—wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton.2 More than 800,000 farmers and landowners receive subsidies, but the payments are heavily tilted toward the largest producers."


"In the US, most organic farmers and those transitioning to organic farming get no subsidies at all, or very few, while huge chemical-intensive corporate farms (10 percent of US farms) get the lion’s share (80 percent) of the nation’s $20 billion in crop subsidies every year. In France, an organic farmer receives, on average, 20 to 40 percent fewer subsidies than a conventional farmer. In 2003, the EU support for Organic Agriculture was 635 million euros, whereas the total Common Agricultural Policy budget amounted to 50 billion. This means that Organic Agriculture received 1.3 percent of the agricultural support, yet, at the time it represented 3.9 percent of the total EU agricultural area."


No doubt that Organic food is expensive, a few more points:
"Myth:
Consumers are paying too much for organic food.

Reality Not so:
Crop rotations, organic animal feed and welfare standards, the use of good
husbandry instead of agri-chemicals, and the preservation of natural habitats all result in organic food costing more to produce. Non-organic food appears to be cheaper but in fact consumers pay for it three times over – first over the counter, second via taxation (to fund agricultural subsidies) and third to remedy the environmental pollution (or disasters like BSE) caused by intensive farming practices."



So here is the actual conclusion: Organic food is cheaper than conventional.
Reality doesn't make it look like that, it's just a good elaborated illusion.
We buy our food that is genetically engineered; It is stuffed with pesticides, herbicides, chemical additives, hormones and we pay for it with our taxes, that's one reason why it's so cheap.

Other hidden costs in conventional food not included in the price are the negative environmental impacts, the clean up costs for polluting our water and soil, more and more billions from our tax money are taken away and the corporations are "obviously" not accountable.
We are spending the same amount of money if not more for this franken-food, we are destroying our Nature and health.

Here is one of my favorite quotes:

‘We need to learn the lessons
of the real cost of production. We need to
ask ourselves not just why organic prices are
so high, but why conventional prices are so low’
A. Wilson, Waitrose2

It says it all.

We must change those policies, the small local organic farmers will go out of business and the future of our self sufficiency will be lost with it. We can decide who and what to support with our money and our voice.
We can stop their domination, their control, their monopoly, WE CAN!



Join the Organic Revolution:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Earth and Science,   Webmash,   5 more
  2. tags:
    WTF,  Environment,  Control,  GMO,  18 more
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37 comments // Organic food is cheaper than conventional food.

  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  

    • I man I work with has health issues. Not life threatening at the moment, but issues, none-the-less.
      I have finally convinced him to eat organic as much as possible. Much of his health issues may be related to the petsicides, herbicides and GM products he has been consuming for years.
      A few weeks should be enough to tell if this helps.

      I shop at Trader Joe's for much of what I consume. Amazing how much cheaper it is than a regular grocery store.
      Anyway...they carry a cheddar cheese from grass fed cows in New Zealand. It tastes soooo much better than the other stuff.
      Unfortunately, in order to get organic grass fed beef, I have to order it from someplace in WI, which gets it from New Zealand.
      One would think with all this land in the US, there would be more grass fed beef around.
      Whole Foods has it, but last time I was in one, they wanted 11.99 a pound for ground beef. And guess where it came from? New Zealand.
      The place in WI is asking 4.99 a pound.

    • 2 years ago
  • zionoe
  • csmonut
    • 0
      csmonut  
    • zionoe:

      If I understand your statement/question correctly. Conventionally grown veggies usually have less vitamins and minerals in them due to soil depletion. And there is the fact of pesticides and GM products that are also in the food chain.
      Organic foods have more vitamins and minerals because the soil is not being depleted of these, therefore making it healthier in another way, than just free of pesticides and other nasty stuff.

    • 2 years ago
  • Lurkistan
    • 0
      Lurkistan  
    • zionoe:

      Organic foods ARE natural, you must be thinking of GMO(genetically modified organisms) crops, which to be considered organic the crop can not be genetically modified.

    • 2 years ago
  • Lurkistan
    • 0
      Lurkistan  

    • This article makes a great point but forgets the biggest potential cost in eating conventional vs organic, healthcare costs. Pesticides can mess with your system a number of ways, from screwing with your hormones and thyroid to cancer, and getting cancer is not cheap, if you live through it that is.

    • 2 years ago
  • Lurkistan
    • 0
      Lurkistan  
    • Lurkistan:

      Oh I just saw the comments at the bottom of the page about health stuff, Not sure I like the new comments first thing, it means a lot of the same comments on a thread get repeated over and over because people don't see the others.

    • 2 years ago
  • DRudeBoy
  • Lurkistan
    • 0
      Lurkistan  
    • Lurkistan:

      Yes there are studies that show the link between cancer and other health issues, and food isn't the only way to be exposed, they could be in ground water or even the air of your close enough to the application. I would list some links but if your really concerned about it you would look them up yourself, I'm not your mom and if you want pesticides go for it its your body.

    • 2 years ago
  • Tyr
    • +1
      Tyr  

    • here is a comparison test anyone can take and draw their own conclusions, go to a Whole Foods store and purchase all your weeks groceries, then go to a supermarket and purchase the same items, compare your receipts, if you can find a supermarket that charges more than Whole Foods and stays in business I want some stock in that company. Any time I have shopped Whole Foods I always wonder why they don't at least wear a mask when they rob me.

    • 2 years ago
  • eternal_springs
  • tenletters
  • Johnll
    • +1
      Johnll  

    • Great Idea and I think we all should give up soda's or at least cut down on them until we are weened from the crap...because that is the only way Organics is going to catch on instead of looking at it as if to say( Organics is too expensive) And I comment on Michael Pollan on educating people on the subject. He was also excellent on the Oprah show talking on the video, FOOD INC. ( I think he also did a documentary on the Botany of Desire) on the PBS channel which was part of my conversion switch....

    • 2 years ago
  • Jubiejanks
  • DRudeBoy
  • Atalanda_Cameron
  • Lurkistan
  • blahav
    • +1
      blahav  

    • According to this article, we'd have to stop paying taxes to really experience "cheaper than conventional" cost benefits. A little misleading. (But hey, we could move to Montana and be 100% self-sustaining and not pay taxes.)

    • 2 years ago
  • DRudeBoy
  • derk
  • Nephwrack
  • derk
  • Lurkistan
  • Lurkistan
    • 0
      Lurkistan  
    • derk:

      Britas don't really filter a lot of the nasty stuff out, just make it taste better, it really depends on where you are and how clean your tap water is, but I use a GE smartwater system that fits under the sink, and as far as I can tell it works great.

    • 2 years ago
  • royulery
    • +2
      royulery  

    • i fed a commune of 200 people with a large organic garden. i would buy ladybugs frozen by the ounce and they took care of the small pests and i planted sacrifice gardens of white geraniums for the bigger bugs. when there was an infestation too big to handle naturally, i would spray with flour and water, that created a glue that suffocated the bugs. it is best to feed the worms than the plant, most of what a plant needs comes from the air and the worms till the soil.
      the cost of fertilizer and pesticide makes gardening expensive and they are unnecessary. knowledge of companion planting solves most garden problems.

    • 2 years ago
  • pandaman2105
    • 0
      pandaman2105  

    • certainly not elitist, but the perception only comes from the prevalence of richer types being the only consumers.

      but the concept is simple (and not elitist): real food, untouched directly for our bodies like nature intended.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • CarlosIsDown
  • voyd21
  • mindcruzer
  • lookatmypix
    • +4
      lookatmypix  

    • "Organic food and a healthy diet and lifestyle are obviously key factors in preventing chronic disease, restoring public health, and reducing out-of-control health care costs. While in 1970, U.S. health care spending appeared somewhat sustainable, totaling $75 billion, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that by 2016, health care spending will soar to over $4.1 trillion, or $12,782 per resident.

      Millions of health-minded Americans, especially parents of young children, now understand that cheap, non-organic, industrial food is hazardous. Not only does chemical and energy-intensive factory farming destroy the environment, impoverish rural communities, exploit farm workers, inflict unnecessary cruelty on farm animals, and contaminate the water supply; but the end product itself is inevitably contaminated. Routinely contained in nearly every bite or swallow of non-organic industrial food are pesticides, antibiotics and other animal drug residues, pathogens, feces, hormone disrupting chemicals, toxic sludge, slaughterhouse waste, genetically modified organisms, chemical additives and preservatives, irradiation-derived radiolytic chemical by-products, and a host of other hazardous allergens and toxins. Eighty million cases of food poisoning every year in the US, an impending swine/bird flu pandemic (directly attributable to factory farms), and an epidemic of food-related cancers, heart attacks, and obesity make for a compelling case for the Organic Alternative."
      http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18493.cfm
      This is a very informative article.

    • 2 years ago
  • lookatmypix
    • +3
      lookatmypix  

    • " please support the following programs that would help our community produce more locally grown organic food:
      Free city land for urban farms
      Ownership opportunities for beginning farmers
      Delivery cooperatives and Local Food Hubs
      Laws that allow backyard poultry, beekeeping, and raw milk
      Slow Money investments to fund Slow Food
      School and community gardens
      Local organic food in schools, hospitals, food banks
      Mandatory composting
      Free compost..."
      Write to your elected officials:
      http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc.cfm

    • 2 years ago
  • lookatmypix
  • lookatmypix
  • lookatmypix
    • +2
      lookatmypix  

    • Let's add to the hidden costs of those cheap broccoli your future medical bill:

      "Right now the food industry creates patients for the health care industry"
      By Michael Pollan

    • 2 years ago
  • lookatmypix
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