Why Organic Food is Worth the Premium Price

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Why Organic Food is Worth the Premium Price

 

 

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/worthit081605.cfm

 

OCA: Why Organic Food is Worth the Premium Price

 

<http://www.etaiwannews.com/Opinion/2005/08/14/1123989894.htm eTaiwan

News - Taiwan Food's high prices proven healthy

 

2005-08-14 / Knight Ridder / By Ronnie Cummins

 

Fifty-million health conscious and environmentally concerned Americans are

now buying certified organic foods, despite the fact that these products

cost 25 to 100 percent more than conventional foods.

 

Organic sales in 2005 will reach US$15 billion - approximately 3 percent of

all grocery store purchases in the nation.

 

While the demand for conventional food is increasing 2-4 percent each year,

organics are growing by 20 percent. At current rates of growth, most grocery

store items will likely be organic by the year 2025.

 

Organic consumers believe that higher grocery bills reflecting premium

prices paid to organic farmers (up to 100 percent more) are well worth it,

since these producers are raising crops and animals the traditional way -

without dangerous pesticides, chemical fertilizers, animal drugs, hormones,

tainted animal feed, or genetically engineered seeds.

 

Organic beef and meat sales grew 122 percent last year, in part a reaction

to news reports on Mad Cow Disease and industry animal feeding practices.

 

The bottom line is that the more consumers learn about industrial-style

agriculture - the feeding of blood, manure, and slaughterhouse waste to

animals, hormone implants and injections, animal feed laced with

antibiotics, intensive confinement, rampant filth and disease in

slaughterhouses - the more they are losing their appetite for cheap

industrial food.

 

Americans spend, on the average, 11 percent of their household income for

food, whereas Europeans, and American organic consumers, spend twice that

much. But a closer look at the hidden costs of non-organic farms and food

reveal that our " cheap food " is actually not that cheap.

 

For example the primary sources of water pollution in the U.S. are feedlots

and chemical-intensive farms. Americans pay billions of dollars every year

in taxes to clean up these polluted surface waters, not to mention billions

of dollars for bottled water.

 

Even more staggering is our annual US$1.5-trillion expenditure on health

care, a significant percentage of which results from our exposure to

farm-derived environmental toxins and our over-consumption of pesticide

tainted, nutritionally deficient, foods.

 

Taxpayers shell out US$40 billion every year in U.S. Department of

Agriculture crop and export subsidies, which primarily benefit large

corporate agribusiness.

 

In contrast, organic farmers basically receive no subsidies at all. In

addition conventional farms use 30 percent more fossil fuel energy than

organic farms, with much of these energy costs being subsidized by

taxpayers. And, as studies show, organic farms are far superior to the

nation's chemical-intensive farms in terms of conserving water, reducing

soil erosion, maintaining soil fertility, and preserving wildlife and

biological resources.

 

In this sense, paying organic farmers a premium price for their products

represents a wise investment in the future.

 

Premium prices paid to America's organic farmers and ranchers support and

preserve small and medium-sized family farms and rural communities. The only

small farmers in America today making a decent living are organic farmers,

especially those who have managed to cut out the " middleman " by selling

directly to local consumers, restaurants, or retailers.

 

Meanwhile unhealthy, tasteless food is still the norm in our public schools,

hospitals, and nursing homes.

 

As America's organic consumers and farmers lead the way to a healthier and

more sustainable food system, we cannot afford to leave low-income families

and children behind. We need increases, not cuts, in food stamps, community

nutrition programs, and school lunch programs.

 

And to supply the growing demand for organic food and fiber, we need to

transfer billions of dollars in " pork barrel " crop subsidies in the next

Farm Bill away from corporate agribusiness, and instead use this money to

help family farmers make the necessary but difficult transition to organic

farming.

 

Ronnie Cummins is the national director of the Organic Consumers Association

(www.organicconsumers.org <http://www.organicconsumers.org/>)