Q&A: Why is organic so expensive?
Question by operasnob: Why is organic so expensive?
I want to use more organic bath products for my daughter & it’s at least 3-5 times the price of her non-organic products! For example, her Johnson’s Baby Shampoo is around $ 3.00 for a 15oz bottle. The cheapest organic shampoo I’ve been able to find is $ 11.99 for 8oz. I wanted to get her more natural toys for the holidays, & organic cotton stuffed animals were much more expensive, as were natural wood building blocks without paint. I understand that organic costs a little more, but I’m beginning to think these companies are price gouging. Is there an explanation for this?
Best answer:
Answer by scoutma53
They are price gouging but also if the products have no preservatives they don’t have as long a shelf life and this makes them more expensive.
Add your own answer in the comments!
because it is harder to produce organic and some stores want to scam you.
Organics do cost more to produce because not using pesticides and other chemicals generally leads to lower crop yields. Also, as another poster said, organic products generally have a shorter shelf life because they don’t contain preservatives. Also, there’s costs associated with certifying that a product is indeed organic.
However, there probably is some price gouging going on there. Companies have figured out that people are willing to pay to feel good about their purchases.
Because Al Gore wants to scam you to make money!!! It’s all Al Gore who invented the internet and organics and global warming and even the concept of the “environment”!!!
I’ve got to correct something Hipp5 said: Organic farms usually produce MORE profit per acre than mechanized non-organic farms (Google it). The reason an organic farmer makes less money than a non-organic farmer is that the latter has huge acreage, so he earns more just on volume.
This partly explains why organic is more expensive: sure, each acre is worth more, but the farmer cannot have as many acres (because he isn’t using the heavy mechanization and chemical inputs required to keep a large farm going). So overall, organic farms have usually been small-scale operations, and this has a tendency to raise the price on the consumer end.
Also, the lack of chemical input and/or genetic manipulation means that crops don’t grow as fast or as large as non-organics, and they also have a shorter shelf life. All of these factors will increase the price.
The single biggest reason organics seem more expensive, however, is that non-organics are UNDERVALUED. The environmental degradation that occurs as a result of non-organic farming has a real price tag, but this is often hard to calculate, and almost always not factored into the costs of production. (For more on this, do a web search for environmental economics.)
There is one caveat to all this: I am taking for granted that we all agree on a common definition for “organic”. Most people accept that organic crops are not sprayed with synthetic pesticides, but there is less agreement on whether artificial (or even natural) fertilizers are acceptable. Also, transportation is usually conveniently ignored from the definition of organic, so you can end up with “organic” produce from California being shipped to Canada. In my mind, that doesn’t keep with the spirit of organic, but most certifying agencies allow it. So long story short, organics are not all created equal, and this will be evident in the price!
Organic stuff takes more labor and more expense. But there can be price gouging. You have to understand some of the things may qualify to be called “organic” by weird loophole or some technicality.
it’s so expensive because the production takes a longer time
yeah it’s like you’d think they were made of organs or something, like that shampoo would be made from kidneys or maybe a liver at least; it’s like black-market prices on supermarket shelves!
There are products out there that are lower priced, but you have to look for them. There are a few reasons why many natural products cost more. Many of the companies are new smaller companies and don’t have the facilities to make things large scale to reduce costs. The large companies have spent decades finding the cheapest way to produce a product which usually means synthetic ingredients, so natural ingredients are more expensive. Some companies know people are willing to pay more for a healthy product and they price it according to what the market will pay.
It is important to me to use healthy products so I do a lot of looking and try to find less expensive products. I do some home recipes. I don’t have a baby, so I haven’t tried any of these products I’m getting the list from the book Gorgeously green. Target has an organic baby line called Erba Organics. Many grocery stores also carry seventh generation products like baby wipes etc. Here are some online sources as well. http://www.jason.com, http://www.aubrey-organics.com, http://www.weleda.com.au, and http://www.litletwig.com
It has in part to do with government subsidies. Large companies receive tax credit for mass production. I don’t know whether this applies to shampoo so much but it is true with farming. Farmers receive large government subsidies to do single croup farming, they are paid to grow as much as possible and by doing so they are keeping the prices artificially low. How it works is while yes you are paying less at the check out for non organic if you were to total what you are paying in taxes, the costs of fuel, the environmental cost you would find the organic really isn’t more expensive.
I believe that the cost is based upon the fact that a lot of people have special needs and want certain desired products, as in the case of organic. Yes preparation is at issue here and with that comes a certain classification of these types of products. Specifically organic can and does call for a cleaner and uncontaminated desired product resulting.
This does establish a variation in this type of market, consumers seek what specifically in the ranger of organic they desire in required products. To honestly make what you want does cost more to produce, especially if the product is true.
because its real, and all Natural