That’s Nuts! Three Common Questions About Organic Farming, Answered
As many of our customers know, what goes into our peanut butter puffs matters to us—which is one reason we decided to create an all organic product.
More people are becoming better aware of the reasons why organic is preferable; but, while there is so much buzz around organic food, many people may still have questions. Puffworks is here to answer a few things you may be wondering about organic farming.
1. Is organic healthier?
In short, yes, organic tends to be much better for your health than conventional. But, organic is not necessarily more “nutritious” than conventional; the nutritional values are roughly the same. The reason organic is better for you is because of the “reduced toxicity” from the lack of pesticides you will be exposed to through organic foods. Because of this, organic practices are also healthier for the environment! There is a significant reduction of eutrophication, soil damage, and climate change associated with organic practices.
2. Why does organic cost more?
The biggest reason organic costs more is because it requires a significant amount of manual labor, which conventional does not. Organic means that farmers cannot use herbicides, or pesticides; i.e. hours of necessary weeding, pest control, and planning have to go into organic farming. There are also high fees that are required for an organic certification, and it is not as mainstream as conventional in general, so only if/until organic scales, and there is more competition associated with it, prices may remain higher.
3. Why aren’t more farms organic?
As mentioned in the previous response, there is a particular process that goes into becoming certified organic. Along with being expensive, this process often requires a lot of time, and energy that many farmers are unable to attain. The history of the land use matters, as well as neighboring land—as there is concern of pesticide drift from near by farms. Not to mention, this certification process may take years, so a farmer could be using organic practices, but is unable to obtain the certification, and therefore cannot reap the financial benefits of selling with an organic label. These factors can be discouraging, as this is their livelihood, and they need to be able to remain competitive.