marshallsmyth said:
How about we go with a typical size orchard of 40 acres. That is a typical commercial Apple orchard size in Sonoma County California, and would be typical of either a Chemical or an Organic orchard.
You are violating a central tenet of organic farming first thing. A legitimate organic farmer does not do monocropping if he has enough acreage not to. A 40 acre organic farm should not have 40 acres of apples. A single crop failure and the entire farm could be ruined financially and a single crop does not allow for biological diversity that would enable an organic farm to thrive. And most organic farms in the eastern part of the country dont have more than a dozen acres, but even they try to produce multiple things.
They both have a tractor, and usually when you see it, you are seeing a good rugged older model standard 4 cylinder tractor.
Where does the organic farmer get the fuel for this tractor? If it is petro-based from the oil industry he is violating another central tenet of organic farming- not being self-sufficient. Furthermore, an orchard would not need to be plowed up on a regular basis the way a grain field would so there is no need for an organic orchard to have a tractor. If the organic orchardist is worried about keeping the grass mowed he can use babydoll Southdown sheep. These animals are only about 2 feet tall and they are used to mow the grass in organic vineyards and orchards because they are too short to reach the trees or grapevines. And they recycle the grass into fertilizer and give the farmer 2 other crops from the same space as the orchard- meat and wool similar to cashmere.
Let's say they have both had their orchard for 15 years, and still have the same amount to pay on their mortgage. Neither one started out any richer than the other.
Having a mortgage is not really an organic farming technique. Unless you start out by buying a piece of land that is overpriced because it is certified organic a mortgage doesnt give the organic farmer any extra production costs.
Both are in similar good health, similar intelligence and education, similar family circumstances.
Again, none of these tings has anything to do with the cost of growing food using organic methods- although organic farmers are usually smarter than non-organic farmers for the simple fact that organic farmers are smart enough to understand what non-organic farmers are doing to the environment and the economy.
Let's say this year they are both replanting 5 acres...just to keep it interesting, and to highlight any difference in planting costs.
The organic farmer will pay more for his trees simply because the plant nurseries want more for organic trees just because they are organic. If I had an organic peach tree and my neighbor had a non-organic peach tree we could both propagate our trees using the same method so our cost would be the same. But since my tree can be labeled organic I could charge a higher price for it simply because of the economic laws of supply and demand. Some consumers are willing to pay more for some things just because they are labeled organic.
Regarding pesticides: The organic farmer can use predatory insects to control bugs in his orchard. As long as he is willing to accept a certain amount of bug damage his farm can become a naturally self-sustaining ecosystem so there will always be enough bad bugs to feed the good bugs. But a non-organic farmer will always have the cost of manmade pesticides and the equipment and labor needed to apply them. So the non-organic farmer will have perpetual costs that the organic farmer does not have because the organic farmer is working with nature instead of competing with nature.
