Let's remember, too, that retail organic premiums for most products no
longer have *anything* to do with the grower.
Hereabouts, organic corn flakes are selling at about $5.70 per pound.
The organic grower sees about 4.1 cents, presuming it's all corn, or
0.7% of the retail price.
Conventional corn flakes are available at $2.40 per pound (sometimes as
low as $1.00, and sometimes as high as $3.50). The conventional grower
sees 3.5 cents for the corn in those corn flakes, or 1.5% of the retail
price.
It's not drastically different for other processed organic foods.
Fruits, vegetables and soybeans aside, it is reasonable to say that
there is little revenue advantage any more to *growing* organically.
Organic hype in the market place is being driven by the very
corporations that can essentially double their revenues for a little
additional cost in purchasing their ingredients. Much of the "growth"
in organics is being driven by wider and wider margins, coupled with
more and more intermediaries taking their cost-plus percentages.
Right now, the organic grower takes almost all the risk of production,
weed hassles, reduced yields, etc. while the folks downstream get
virtually all of the financial benefit. This is no different in essence
than the conventional system, and people telling you otherwise probably
have a vested interest somewhere in maintaining that myth.
Bart
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