Organic Legion    Spread The Word, Change The WORLD!™

Image provided by OrganicLegion.org Copyright 2009 All rights reserved

"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."

www.guardian.co.uk

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."
www.downsizinggovernment.org

"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."
Ifoam.org

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."
www.farmingsolutions.org

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
www.farmingsolutions.org
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!