Going organic?

Question

Going organic might be good in the fact that they're are no pestisides and chemicals in the production of crops, however are farmers really making more money or about the same.

I realise there is some funding they can recieve from going organic but chemicals can prevent disease and increase farmers ammount of crops whereas growing organically means there is more chance of disease to the crops and less crops being produced

Do you think they make the same amount of money or more?

Answer 1

Organic farmers make more money per acre, because it is still a specialty market. Also most organic farms are small and grow more high value crops than standard farming.

Answer 2

organic farming could be highly profitable if properly managed. it is a specialty area and so many people fail to observe the required procedures and standards and therefore end up with poor yield.

organic farming actually yields more money and also is more environmentally friendly asit is devoid of the use of excessive chemicals. its takes into account the life cycle of disease vectors and disease causative organisms to avoid crop disease and to maximize yield.

organic nutrients are most suitable for plants growth and lead to better yield in crops

Answer 3

this depends. making an organic farm is expensive because the idea is fairly new and there isn't much demand for it. if the organic is with crops, you need to know what you are doing. I have seen many organic fields of wheat and beans that you can't even see what is in it because there are so many weeds. i think you just need to know what you are doing really. organic livestock is a lot easier because you don't really have to worry about harvesting weeds rather than good crops, but the food that you put in them might have a higher weed count that takes nutritional value away from what they are eating. Don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to scare you away from organics. i would actually encourage it. just remeber that the cost is steep when starting, but it does pay off in the end.

P.S. usually organic produce can sell at a higher price than conventional.

Answer 4

What I have found over the years marketing my products is this...

Marketing and profit have nothing to do with how you grow.

The obvious is that you spend "X" money and "X" time to produce a crop. Your time is a value just as much as cost but you leave that as a variable for now. I could get a higher return with smaller lots of produce to small local markets but transportation and delivery caused me to expend more time. I would frequently do my morning deliveries and get home only to have a phone call from the markets saying the product has already sold, please bring more fast. With the big markets, like a huge supermarket chain where I am, they would pick up from me anything with a minimum of 100 cases, or I could drop off anything less as they do not pick up smaller amounts. They had a set price which was considerably less than I would like but they move bulk and will pick up. What is the difference between conventional grown products and organic grown products? Nothing in the sense of marketing/ supply and demand. However, the reality, the big picture that I am so fond of pointing out in all my writing is that (in this case) the grower spends a certain amount of money to grow a product and adds to it labor, to include getting the product to those who buy it as I pointed out above. Given the real difference in organic and conventional, organic is the more labor intensive which tips the scales of cost to put more value on your physical work. Keep in mind that there are different levels of organic and sustainable and the grower has many "tools" to pick and choose from when growing. More labor is associated with more help in the example of not allowing heavy equipment on the plots to limit soil compaction and not allowing plows to turn the soil for that reason (and others) where "no till" farming and heavy mulching is employed (see how this one example changes the cost dynamics when deciding how one grows a product). Conventional will lean more towards more costly agricultural products to limit labor, and will more frequently than not require more expensive and heavy equipment and chemicals to maximise yield with a very limited number of farm hands.

The short answer, which isn't short in the end is what is your time worth. You know what you had to spend. You know that organic products command a higher retail and by virtue of that a higher wholesale. If you now track your time, you can say that "I can ask for "X" amount of money for my time making the product worth "Y" amount per unit. You look at the low end of "Y" and the high end of "Y" and see what the market will allow. If you value your time less and sell low your product goes out but if you value your time more then you may not sell as much as fast. If your product gets to market before there is a glut then the price is high, but when the market floods with a product, you can't ask for big money or you will just get stuck with it. One day after harvest the value of your product starts to drop. If you want to grow a product you need to know the market first and have a buyer or you have a lot of risk. You know if you grow a field of tobacco that you will get it sold but knowing your buyers first is better than trying to broker at the last minute and getting a low price. Your "X" labor turns out to be "chump change", and you the chump. Markets are what you make them and big bulk low wholesale vs. small bulk higher priced wholesale with more of YOUR leg work is one example of how it isn't that simple. Organic is more your time and less your cost whereas conventional is a lot of labor saving devices and chemicals that cost more to limit labor and paying help wages while producing greater amounts with said labor. And it isn't all black and white because there is a lot of gray between the two.

Answer 5

Although the amount of produce is smaller Organic products tend to fetch higher prices at the market. People feel safe to buy them so they are reday to pay more bocks for them. Pests diseases are there. but whether they comletely  destroy your crop is a problem.However I think it is still difficult to grow 100% organic things.

Answer 6

I am not a farmer, but I have a friend who is. He tells that healty plants need less or no pesticides at all.

where I live, there is a person who produces a liquid fertilizer that is made by red California worms, he has no more than 1/2 acre dedicated to this, but he gets more than 2000 gallons a day, that he sells for a good amount of money. That is a bussiness, but farmers in his valley are now using only that fertilizer, they grow sugar cane, and use no pesticides, only baited poison for mice.

I recently visited, in Morelia, México, a group of farmers that installed more than 100 "plants" to grow micorrizas, some kind of fungus that is used to inoculate seeds of plants, just before they plant them, and those plants make roots more than 3 times larger than normal, and of course those plants are bigger, stronger and healtier than normal. .

I hope you read spanish, this is the worm humus plant, :

http://www.vermiorganicos.com/

for micorrizas: http://www.hortalizas.com/es/noticias/bi...

Esteban [e-mail]