Food prices reflect the costs of growing, harvesting, transportation,
storage, processing and packaging. To be certified organic food must
meet stricter regulations that govern all these steps in the process.
Organic food production is usually more labor and management intensive
and happens on a smaller scale ie on smaller farms which lack the
benefit of economy of scale. All this makes organic food more expensive
than conventionally farmed food. But this is only if we don’t look at
the true cost of food production. When the indirect costs of
conventional food production such as replacement of eroded soils, clean
up of polluted water, costs of health care for farmers, farm workers and
the consumers, environmental cost of artificial pesticide production
and disposal, are factored into the cost, organic food is much cheaper.
We need to look at the full life-cycle cost of production of organic vs
non-organic.
Organic farming methods means production yields are often, but not
always, lower than those obtained by conventional farming methods. This
is because organic food production does not involve the use of
artificial fertilizers, pesticides and other technological aids.
Depending where in Indonesia you purchase organic produce you can
expect to pay at least a 20 percent premium. Based on survey, It found
organic fruit and vegetables were on average 70 percent more expensive
than non-organic – but the gap was shrinking. One factor driving the
prices down is the entry into the organic market of the big players.
In countries where organic production is a higher proportion of the
overall food production than it is in Australia, the price of organic
food is coming down. This is largely due to economies of scale.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar