Organic dilemmas

The only dilemma people ever seem to have about buying organic food is money. That's why it's so important that the EC and the UK government implement the changes to farming subsidies that they've been talking about for so long. Organic farms can now produce the same yield as agrochemical farms. The reason that organic food is more expensive than agrochemical food is that agrochemical farmers receive much higher subsidies from Europe. If you have a medium sized wheat farm in the UK and you use agrochemicals on your crop, you receive a cheque for between £8,000 and £10,000 every January before you've even planted your seed for the next crop. If you had the same farm but had converted to organic methods, you don't get anywhere near this amount of money.

Organic consumers pay for their food three times: at the checkout, in farming subsidies for agrochemical farms, and in taxes to clean up the pollution in the water table that agrochemical farming makes.

That said, personally I'd rather pay 5p more for an organic apple, as it contains up to 50% more vitamins, minerals and enzymes, is not covered in pesticides, fertilisers and fungicidal wax, has much more flavour, a better texture, and doesn't damage the countryside or the health of farmworkers who grow it. Well worth the extra until the law's changed.

Ysanne