Organic Myth Busting - Is it more expensive?

Dr Oliver Moore (Ollie) is an author, academic, journalist, blogger and all round organic expert. To mark National Organic Week, we asked him to tackle some of the more prevalent myths or accepted wisdoms around organic foods. In the first of a series, Ollie examines the belief that organic food is always more expensive than conventional and comes up with some surprising insights:

As it happens, we Irish have never spent less on food, as a proportion of our overall income, than we do today. Price differentiation is fine, it seems, for everything other than food: a second hand Nissan micra costs less than a brand new BMW 5 series. Likewise, Irish organic beef burgers scored top, achieving 5 and 4 stars, in a recent pricewatch column in the Irish Times. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

But often organic food’s bark is worse than its bite. It is almost a journalistic ritual to bring up the price of organic chicken, as if this is typical of the price differentiation between conventional and organic: it's not. Where I live, a local raw organic goats cheese (St. Tolas), perhaps the ultimate symbol of supposedly artisan elite food, actually costs less than Cheesestrings, per kilo. Per kilo is the key here. And my 3 year old daughter loves its creamy, slightly citrus taste.

Was that cheap chicken you just bought, or very expensive water?

And that expensive supermarket chicken is a radically different product than its conventional cousin. It is usually bigger (again, check the per kilo price) and leaks less water when you cut open the plastic wrapping – was that cheap chicken you just bought, or very expensive water?

Organic chickens are fed different food, and live different lives. Their meat is guaranteed free from GM – sadly, most Irish farm animals are actually fed a GM component in their feed. The bird also roams freely and lives twice as long as its unfortunate conventional counterpart. So it grows at a natural rate: No cramped conditions and overfed chronic obesity for these birds. Simply put, we are not comparing like with like when we compare organic and conventional.

It might sound facetious to suggest shopping around but it really does make a difference: in my corner shop, 1 lt of conventional milk costs the same price as 1 lt of organic milk in the supermarket. And farmers’ markets can actually, despite the hype, be great places for organic price bargains, because of the lack of middlemen.

Then there’s waste. I know myself as a consumer, but also from research as an academic, that people who buy organic food waste less of it. This shows food respect, in a world where 1/3 of all food bought is actually thrown out. Wouldn’t it make more sense to buy more organic and throw less food out?

Then there’s what you buy: the basic organic commodities – beef, milk and dairy products, fruit and veg, do not have the same sort of mark up as the more processed, value added organic products such as pizzas or ready meals.

The real cost of food

Ultimately, you cannotignore the fact that there is the true cost of food to consider: environmental clean ups, subsidies and taxes mask conventional food prices. Organic food production uses 30-50% less fossil fuels. Nonetheless, with a 60% increase in the price of fertilizers this year alone, some prices may well start to equalise.

But in the end, sometimes it does cost more to buy organic. Console yourself in the knowledge that you are that most mature of global eco citizens – the self-taxer. In a world facing climate chaos, we should commend rather than condemn consumers who spend more of their hard earned cash on a product that is better for themselves, for animals, for nature and in the fight against global warming.

Read more of Ollie's views at http://olivermoore.blogspot.com