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In reality, organic food is not expensive

Organic foods are more expensive in stores than conventionally produced foods. However, the prices do not reflect the true production costs:

The animals in factory farming leave behind a lot of liquid manure, which the farmers spread on the fields. The result: the soil is over-fertilized and can no longer absorb the amount of nitrogen compounds. These seep into the groundwater and form nitrate there, which harms people. The waterworks have to drill deeper and deeper in order to get reasonably clean drinking water. Over-fertilized lakes and ponds overgrow and "overturn: they" eutrophicate ". The nitrate pollution of drinking water alone causes costs of 10 billion euros in Germany every year. We don't pay them at the cash register at Aldi or Lidl, but with our water bill. Added to this are the follow-up costs for antibiotic-resistant germs, many of which arise in the large stables of the meat manufacturers. There the animals get a lot of antibiotics, which get into humans via the water and the meat. If a person then becomes ill, medical antibiotics work worse or not at all because the germs have developed resistance. In 2019, farm animals in Germany swallowed about as many antibiotics as humans: around 670 tons.

We all pay the real cost of “conventional” agriculture

You will find numerous more examples of this being externalized by industrial agriculture than passed on at other costs here, as well as sample calculations for individual foods. If we were to pay all the follow-up costs of industrial, conventional meat production at the supermarket checkout or shop counter, meat from factory farming would be around three times as expensive as it is today and therefore more expensive than organic meat. The has details on the true cost of our food University of Augsburg in a study determined: In contrast to the current food prices, the “true costs” of food are characterized by the fact that they also include environmental and social follow-up costs that arise in the production of the food. They are caused by food producers, but currently - indirectly - borne by society as a whole. For example, consumers pay for greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture with climate change and its effects. Using “True Cost Accounting” not only the direct production costs are included in the price of a food, but also its effects on ecological or social systems are converted into monetary units. 

Organic food also causes costs that are not included in the retail prices. But they are here 2/3 lower than in conventional agriculture.

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Written by Robert B Fishman

Freelance author, journalist, reporter (radio and print media), photographer, workshop trainer, moderator and tour guide

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