For all of those people who are interested in what they are putting into their shopping carts and putting into their body: there are some serious reasons why organic produce is so much higher priced than the exact same non-organic items. Although there is some major demand for organic items ranging from the foods we eat and the clothing that we wear and everything in between, there are some serious disadvantages of organic farming. If that demand ever starts to wane in any area, you will see an almost automatic decrease in the amount of organic goods you see in your local area.

For your average, family gardener, the time involved in getting enough produce to feed the family and maybe have some leftovers to can, preserve or freeze up can be as little as a few hours a week to more labor intensive crops that have to be babied from planting to reaping. But, for a commercial farmer, the time needed to produce good crops can be the majority of the day, every day of the week.

Organic crops need to have more hands on time. Weeds have to be dealt with, bugs and other pests have to be monitored. The work that is normally done by chemicals must be done by other means which simply equals more time spent working with the crops.

A farmer grows a crop and hopes to get the most out of what he is growing, every time. If he has apple trees for instance, he wants the entire tree to be covered by shiny and lovely apples. He wants to be able to walk up and down the rows to see the apples hanging from every branch. The organic farmer, though, rarely does not get this kind of yield from his crops for a number of reasons. The lack of chemical herbicides and pesticides may mean that not all of the plants will make it- they simply will not be strong enough.

If you have ever priced two bags of apples, you might have been shocked by the big difference between the organic and the others but have you ever wondered why the prices were so different?

Organic produce typically costs so much more for a reason: it relates to the two other factors. It takes more time and work to grow crops or raise animals that are able to be called organic. The farmer has to pay for the cost of being declared organic. They have to work twice as hard to get half as much. The lower yield of the organic crops means that the farmer has to price his items higher just to break even. People who are concerned about their health will pay the higher price for organic food and clothing which will allow the farmer to be able to continue producing them.