What are the costs associated with organic farming?

When you eat organic lettuce, you support a growing method that doesn't use synthetic chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides.

Organic farms

tend to pay more per acre to produce their crops because they require more labor to deal with weeds and pests in the fields. Not only do YOU consume less chemical waste, but so do agricultural workers, who are continuously exposed to harmful chemicals on factory farms. Estimates of the difference in net yields per acre between organic and conventional production showed positive economic benefits for organic corn and soybeans compared to conventional crops, which is consistent with the increase in the organic area of those two crops in recent years.

Organic corn and soybeans have been profitable, mainly because of the significant price premiums paid for certified organic crops, which more than offset the additional economic costs. Acres cultivated under USDA-certified organic systems have grown rapidly since the National Organic Program (NOP) was implemented in 2002.Organic producers tend to operate on a smaller scale than large farms, so there are not the same cost efficiencies. In addition to the transition costs, organic farmers face several other challenges that hinder and make production more expensive. Extensive crop producers may lack information on the relative costs and yields of organic and conventional production systems on commercial farms, and on the performance of farms that choose the organic approach.

The total economic costs are the sum of operating and capital costs, plus the opportunity costs (what these resources could have generated in their best alternative use) of land and unpaid labor, and the costs allocated to the general expenses of the farm. Although uncertified products do not benefit from price premiums, there have been some documented cases in which uncertified organic agriculture increases the productivity of the total agricultural agroecosystem and saves on the purchase of external inputs. Despite these potentially higher benefits of organic production, the adoption of the organic approach among organic producers in the U.S. The U.S.

had higher fuel and capital costs because they used more field operations, particularly for tillage. Researchers have studied the production of organic crops in a long-term experimental environment, but little has been reported on the commercial production of organic field crops. The main reason why organic yields were higher than conventional yields was the price premiums paid for organic crops.