Organic cost

Environmentalists push for organic farming, but who's buying?

photos & story by jessica hulett

Melissa Hill of Lansing pushes a shopping cart down the aisles of the East Lansing Food Co-op, picking out organic and local-grown foods that are sold there.

Hill is in her third or fourth year of shopping at the co-op and isn’t deterred by some of the higher prices of organically grown foods.

“Particularly with the produce, the better taste is just so huge,” Hill said of locally produced foods. “Even an organic strawberry that’s shipped hundreds of miles isn’t as good.

“It’s really simple, but there are good ingredients. It deserves to cost more.”

Though Hill isn’t certified to grow organic produce, she has committed to not using pesticides in her own yard, instead using compost to feed what she grows.

In order to label their crops “organic,” farmers must submit an organic system plan, including a description of practices and substances used in production, record-keeping procedures and practices to keep organic and non-organic products apart.

Packaged products labeled “100 percent organic” must contain only organically-produced products, show an ingredient statement when more than one is present in the product and display the statement “Certified organic by _____” along with the handler’s (bottler, manufacturer, etc.) name and address.

John Biernbaum, a horticulture professor at Michigan State University, said the choice to farm organically often has to be economically motivated.

“Some people aren’t concerned with environmental and health concerns,” he said. “It takes time. I had to learn patience over the years.”

Biernbaum started farming since he was young and had a particular interest in compost. He was introduced to organic farming after attending a conference in the mid-’90s, in Wisconsin.

“I was on a high I don’t hardly remember during the 10-hour drive back,” he said. “I’ve been on that kind of high and excited about organics ever since.”

But the price of organic products may be keeping others unaware of that high, though awareness of organics and locally produced foods is slowly increasing.

“Take organic toilet paper,” Hill said. “There’s actually less to it, so technically it should cost less. It’s a supply and demand thing — hopefully the price for some things will go down.

Phil Throop of Bath plays guitar next to his table of organically drown produce during Celebrate the Harvest, an event held at the East Lansing Co-op so people could meet local growers.

“But now there’s a much better awareness all around. I’ve seen it in my own friends.”

Hill said participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a good place to start for people who are committed to locally grown foods. People can pay for a share of harvested produce for so many weeks. It’s cheaper that way, though there can be less choice of foods, depending on the time of harvest.

“You can be more adventurous in your cooking,” she said.

For people who are still turned off by the price of some organic products, Biernbaum said that with some products, like salad greens, the price isn’t that different if people look.

“Food is not something we should look at as an industrial product and make it less money,” Biernbaum said. “The food system is built on cheap food. If you keep that, and bellies full, people are a lot more agreeable to politics.

“But we’re doing that at a cost to farmers.”

Farming is one of the few professions where people sell a product and aren’t sure of the price. Farmers typically sell to wholesalers, who sell to retailers (grocery stores), who sell to consumers. About 15 percent of the consumer dollar gets back to the farmer, a figure that has been decreasing.

“There’s very little profit in farming, especially small and medium-sized farms,” Biernbaum said. “We need all sizes, but the pressure is to charge less money, which focuses on the large-scale production.”

Biernbaum said one solution is to cut the wholesaler out of the farming equation and have farmers sell directly to consumers like schools, restaurants, grocery stores and individuals.

“Any time the organic farmer tries to get more money for food, others mark up to get their cut, so the farmer can’t ever make more money,” he said. “If people are making more money, but the producer goes out of business, what’s going to happen?”

That’s exactly the point, according to Richard Bowie, who farms 80 acres called Owosso Organics.

“It’s easy to grow something bright and shiny because it’s like plastic,” he said. “But does it have any taste?

“We start all of our flowers ourselves. Are we the most efficient? A little less than others, but people have a peace of mind.”

Bowie said if more people bought local foods, support would increase, but said buyers aren’t educated.

“Prices are coming down,” he said. “But members of the (East Lansing) Co-op know what they’re buying and pay more.

“They’re making an investment into their children’s futures every time they buy organics.”

Dr. Laurie Thorp, director of MSU's Residential Inititative on the Study of the Environment (RISE), snaps a photo of radishes pulled one day at the Student Organic Farm, south of MSU's campus.

Bowie said the main thing wrong with conventional farming monocropping, or only growing one crop on a piece of land. Pests are more easily attracted and harder to get rid of, so farmers have to spray more pesticides.

Organic farmers let nature try and get rid of pests naturally, and in so doing, end up throwing away many crops that don’t look perfect. But Bowie prefers that to the conventional way.

“We eat processed food to a point where our bodies don’t know how to handle it,” he said. “Many people have digestive problems.”

Biernbaum can vouch for that, as he had irritable bowel syndrome in his 30s, when he wasn’t eating well, didn’t sleep well and didn’t handle stress well.

“Where’s the money going that doesn’t go to the farmers?” he said. “I say the health care system and disease prevention.”

When people can come to places like the East Lansing Co-op and actually meet the local growers, Bowie said it helps keep the farmers in business and increases awareness of the benefits of buying local.

The increased support is needed as it becomes harder for organic farmers to say their product is “organic.” Bowie pays $800 annually to be certified by the USDA. That figure was $300 three years ago.

“Some people refuse to get certified because it’s so expensive — it’s costing more to do the same things,” Bowie said. “So there’s even a fallout between growers.”

Those growers can use words like “earth-friendly” and can be fined $11,000 every time they use the word “organic.”

Conventional farmers are having their own financial problems.

Pat and Jim Wedel of DeWitt have been farming since they were married 22 years ago, and Jim farmed before that. They farm 300 acres, rotating corn, wheat and soybean crops. They also grow hay.

“We used to farm 1,000 acres,” Pat Wedel said. “Developers are buying up the land and building homes on it.”

The Wedels have talked about farming organically, and Pat keeps and organic garden and huge compost pile. But to farm just wouldn’t be a financially feasible switch for them.

“We haven’t bought any new equipment in 12 or 13 years,” Pat said. “Jim does all the repairs, and organic farming would require some new equipment.

“But he doesn’t plow and really tries to take very good care of the soil.”

The Wedels do rotate their crops on a three-year cycle, avoiding the monocropping that Bowie disapproves of.

Jim must take a full-day test every year to have a chemical license for the farm, and takes classes to keep updated on what to do in case of a chemical spill and when to apply which chemicals. He keeps a log of the weather conditions when he applies all chemicals.

“What do you do when you get a disease and the only way to get rid of it is with pesticide?” said Pat. “I stopped growing potatoes in my garden because I couldn’t get rid of a bug.

“I don’t know what an organic farmer would do about that.”

Universities like MSU are helping answer those questions through research on their own organic farms. MSU’s Student Organic Farm first met as a student group in 1998 and has been farming for about a year. The objectives of the farm are to provide learning opportunities and also expand the ability to produce organic crops in Michigan’s northern climate.

And though certain inefficiencies come with growing food organically, Bowie hopes people will understand and be aware of local production.

“If you can create healthy soil, you can grow healthy food,” he said. “All farmers using chemicals have to use more and more.

“They’re basically creating heroin addicts of the soil.”

Biernbaum added, “Is organic food expensive, or is regular food under priced?”

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