Pleh Meh and Su Meh weeding garden bed

The True Cost of Growing Food

Rod Logan, who is our Market Garden Coordinator here at the farm, said something to me that got me thinking: “People say that organic produce it too expensive, but it’s actually conventional produce that is too cheap.”

Do the price tags at the grocery store reflect the true cost of growing food? In fair markets, they should cover costs for farmers’ time and equipment, transport of goods, and retail. But, when we consider the long-term environmental and social costs, the real cost of growing food is much greater.

Healthy soils and the biodiversity they support have taken millennia to build. But modern industrial agriculture, and the way it has grown around maximum yields and profits, exhaust these natural riches in generations.

As costs for farmers increase faster than how much they can sell their produce for, they are incentivised to find fast solutions to grow more with less. They grow monoculture crops. They buy bigger machinery to reduce reliance on expensive labour. They use chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides to ensure larger yields. They rely on chemical fertilisers to feed crops as soils become depleted.

The environmental costs of modern farming are not being paid by today’s consumers. They are being passed onto future generations, who will pay for them one day, in one way or another.

The good news is that there are other ways to grow and distribute food. Regenerative, permaculture-based, organic farming is designed to give more to the soil than it takes, thus rebuilding and nurturing healthy agroecosystems. Like a strong investment fund, these holistic practices allow us to live off the interest of instead of depleting the capital.

This is a hugely complex topic and one that requires more attention and discussion from governments, businesses, and consumers alike to ensure that everyone, regardless of circumstance, has access to fresh, healthy food that doesn’t cost the earth.

As more people become aware of the issues and make the best decisions they can given their circumstances, hopefully we can shift towards more local, small-scale, regenerative food systems. At Green Connect, with your support, we are proud to be doing our part. 

Lindsay Burlton
Fair Food Coordinator

 

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