Because of the sudden shift of the society towards health and wellness, people are turning to healthy choices, especially when it comes to food products. Organic foods and products are fast becoming popular these days. Who would not want to eat healthy foods with no chemicals and which is good to environment? But sad to say, not everyone can afford this kind of luxury. People from poor countries cannot afford this kind of food even if they want to. Only rich people can afford this kind of food as it is more expensive to grow than conventional farm goods.
The use of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals are not encouraged and tolerated in the production of organic foods. With the organic production, the usual non-organic pesticides, herbicides and insecticides is very limited and saved to be the last resort if ever. However, contrary to the popular belief, non-organic fertilizers are still used in growing organic food. Also, in raising organic livestock, all of the animals are grown organically and be fed only with a healthy diet and without any addition of antibiotics and growth hormones. Genetically-modified food products cannot be considered as organic as the main criteria should be natural. This is followed in many countries.
Organic food is way better for everyone and their family. The organic foods have more vitamins, enzymes, minerals and it tastes far better than intensively farmed produce. It is also free from pesticides, insecticides, growth hormones, fertilizers, antibiotics and a lot of other toxic artificial flavorings, additives, preservatives and colorings. So the question is why do the organic foods cost more if it has less added chemicals?
One of the main reasons why the commercially farmed foods are cheaper to buy in the shops is that it is subsidized by the taxes of the citizens. The production of chemically-produced crops and food products are widely supported by the government and receive subsidies from the taxpayers’ money. However, organic farming does not receive any aid from the government.
Organic farming for commercial produce is not cheap and expensive ingredients needed by the farmers add to the cost of the produce. For example, conventional farmers widely use sewage sludge and chemical fertilizers which are both cheap and transportation of these ingredients are also less expensive as compared to the organic fertilizers, compost and animal manure used in organic farming, which are more costly.
Conventional farmers can grow every vegetable or crops that are in high prices in the market. However, organic farmers are limited by the practice of crop rotation in order to maintain the healthiness of the soil and to be able to nurture more crops in the future. Thus, with this practice, organic farmers earn little because they cannot grow crops with the highest price in their land, which is contradictory to conventional practice. Conventional farmers can gain advantage on growing high value crops. Moreover, in growing organic livestock, organic feeds for animals can cost twice as much as the conventional feed.
That is one of the reasons why organic foods are really not available to everyone. They are more expensive to grow than the conventional way of farming. The expensive price can’t be afforded by the poor so only the rich can have the access in these kinds of foods. Sad to say, this is the reality nowadays. But as the popularity of the organic foods is increasing, the government may one day create a solution to grow organic foods in cheaper ways and be available to everyone.