Organic farming, within a Regenerative context, results in lower input costs which should make food cheaper for consumers. Some argue that yields are also reduced however making the net result for consumers a more expensive product – “The Organic Tax”.
This isn’t (and shouldn’t) be the case.
China now dominates the world Ag Chem and synthetic fertiliser market with lower environmental standards and subsequently lower production costs. Despite China’s cheap products, conventional (chemical) farmers worldwide haven’t been immune to higher costs of production.
Uncertainty of supply of these poisons & synthetics and increasing usage*, shipping cost fluctuations and price changes from the supply shortages played havoc in the past 3 years. With a 64% of the world’s farmland now threatened by chemical contamination**, there are other costs too coming into play for the conventional farm such as a Pesticides Tax (Sweeden, Norway, Denmark & France) and Carbon Tax (27 countries***) that begin to level the playing field by measuring the true cost of food production systems- Organic Vs Conventional.
In the #RegenRegion some landholders are seeing this threat as an opportunity with over 400 more hectares moving into Organic Certification in the Mary Valley in the past 12 months alone. Why then, with lower and more stable input costs, is Organic Food still more expensive to consumers than that produced with poisons bought the other side of the world?
As a local Certified Organic Beef Producer (K2 Organic Beef), I am continually amazed at the measures all Certified Organic Farms must go to in verifying what we do (or actually what we don’t)!
Unlike Conventional farms we must track every input our animals and plants have just to verify each is an allowable organic input. We pay for external independent Auditors to scrutinise our records and test our soils working to an approved International Production Standard. It seems ironic that if we chose to use synthetics to produce your food, we would have no such oversight.
We continually communicate with neighbors, including councils, to defend our right to produce your food without risk of spray drift or runoff from adjacent paddocks, creekside and roadside treatments (as examples). It takes time and resources (and lots of stress) to work with outdated and failing tools many organisations have to dispense & track their pesticide usage – such as the GRC’s “No Spray Register”.
We have to run individual livestock tracking software linked to DNA animal identification to record where every animal is all the time. A lifetime record of individual movements. We have to pay an extra cost to the butcher who cuts up our meat to be audited to show there is no chance of contamination of our Organic food with the “Conventional” meat he sells and no chance the chemicals that are used for conventional food processing come into contact with our Organic produce. Processing, transport, storage, packaging, labelling and distribution all cost more for Certified Organics just so we can prove what we DON’T DO.
It certainly seems an inverted system when our biggest production cost is compliance- accounting for (we estimate) $4/kg of edible beef sold.
It could be argued that this “Organic Tax” should instead be paid by conventional farmers so they are audited for their use of synthetic inputs on paddocks and stock- afterall those products are of greater concern in the food chain than organic inputs.
Conventional landholders wishing to have their roadside frontages chemically treated should of course be allowed to but should sign up to a “Spray Register” for this service- and pay for it in their Rates and Registrations, not the other way around.
Producers wishing to use chemicals in their production and food processing should have to keep their produce separate from those who don’t, and have it clearly labelled (in extra packaging) as being chemically treated during production.
Imagine then if that food system had to be Certified and audited externally to a strict International Standard with the producer paying for that service – passing the cost through to consumers.
A Conventional Food Tax would certainly cause both producer and consumer backlash in a time of cost-of-living crunch; but it would change food production in this country forever, and fast.
As that scenario probably will never happen, consider, in a month dedicated to a better local food system, all the reasons why it’s worthwhile to pay a little more for Certified Organic and taste the difference^.
Enjoy GourMay!
* https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1057544
***https://earth.org/what-countries-have-a-carbon-tax/
^ K2 Organic GourMay paddock walk, Matt Golinski tapas and Wine tasting https://www.kandangafarmstore.com.au/events/
