I’m a huge fan of organic food – I try to buy as much produce as I can that’s marked with the organic label. But now that my husband and I are watching our wallets a little closer, I’m finding organic is sometimes out of our price range. Why would something that uses no pesticides be so expensive?

The answer is complex. To simplify, it comes down to four reasons:

1. Supply is lower than demand. You remember your high school Economics class, right? The higher the demand, the higher the price.
2. Organic food requires more labor. When pesticides and chemicals are not sprayed in mass quantities, it takes more work to keep the produce bug and disease free.
3. Because harvest quantities are low, it costs more money to get the produce to market. Typically organic foods are grown or produced in smaller quantities so they don’t share the same economies of scale as larger crops.
4. Farmers and producers must pass rigorous organic certification process set forth by the USDA. That means a new level of compliance, documentation, planning and inspections which all costs time and money.

So what’s the average consumer to do? Again, the answer is not simple and it won’t be the same for every person. But for me, I try to follow some guidelines:

Buy local – I’d much rather buy local blueberries that don’t have an organic label than those that do and come from Chile. Why? Because many small farmers are going beyond the USDA guidelines for organic farming. The farm where I pick up my CSA box every week is not certified organic but the farmer doesn’t pesticides, plows her fields with draft horses, and uses sustainable farming practices. The produce is also fresher and more flavorful because it travels 5 miles instead of 5,000.

Make a choice – What does your body and the health of our environment mean to you? I’d much rather put ingredients that weren’t sprayed with chemicals in my body. And I want to see us being responsible about the world we live in. Therefore I’m willing to pay a little more for organic products. Yes I may have to pass up those new shoes I’ve been eyeing, but to me, that’s okay.

Read the labels – According to Webster’s Dictionary, organic refers to any “food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides.” In the US, anyone who wants to label their food as organic must be certified and abide by a set of USDA guidelines. Those guidelines dictate how food should be produced and handled before it ends up on your plate.

Here’s how to demystify those labels on your next shopping trip:

100% Organic – all ingredients (with the exception of water and salt) inside the product must be organic. These products can use the brown and green USDA Organic seal.

Organic – must contain at least 95% organically produced ingredients and may carry the USDA seal.

Made with Organic – must be made from at least 70% organic ingredients and cannot use the USDA seal.

If the product contains less than 70% of organic ingredients, the ingredient label can still list those items that are organic.

So the choice is yours to make. I can’t tell you what you should do, but I can certainly make suggestions! And I hope those suggestions have helped.

 Leave a Comment