- 5 hours ago
Organic food often costs more than conventional food because it is more expensive to produce. Farmers have higher labor costs, costly infrastructure, and strict certification requirements under the widely trusted USDA organic label. While large farms can absorb these costs, smaller farmers often cannot. Some continue to use organic methods but drop certification due to its expense, losing the ability to market their products as "organic." Although consumers trust the USDA organic label and organic foods may reduce pesticide exposure, the nutritional benefits are less clear, raising questions about whether the higher price is worth it.
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00:00We gave these two shoppers the same exact grocery list.
00:04But there's just one difference.
00:07This shopper is only buying food that has this label.
00:14Organic iceberg lettuce costs $5.99,
00:17more than double the price of regular iceberg lettuce.
00:21A pound of organic ground beef costs $14.99,
00:25about 80% more than a pound of regular ground beef.
00:28And this pint of organic blueberries cost $12.99,
00:3344.5% more than the regular pint.
00:36In total, the all-organic shopper spent 72.4% more.
00:42The organic label was designed to give Americans
00:46a trustworthy standard for healthier food.
00:50But decades later, it's become a system that rewards large companies
00:54and leaves many small farmers behind.
00:58We can't use the O-word, the organic word, on any packaging,
01:03any promotions, any advertising.
01:05So what makes organic food so expensive?
01:09And if some food grown organically can't be labeled as such,
01:13is organic really worth the extra cost?
01:21Before the 1940s, most food grown in the U.S.
01:25would have been considered organic by today's standards.
01:29But that changed in the aftermath of World War II.
01:34Chemicals originally developed for combat were repurposed as synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
01:41Farmers began using them on farms across the U.S.
01:46And it worked.
01:47Crop yields increased and food production surged.
01:51But this practice sparked a backlash, centered on one chemical in particular.
01:56It's a mouthful to say, so people call it DDT for short.
02:01DDT was originally used to protect soldiers from malaria,
02:05but it is also really good at controlling crop-damaging pests.
02:10Less dependence upon nature and more control in managing his crop.
02:15It soon became one of the most widely used pesticides in the world.
02:21Then in 1962, marine biologist Rachel Carson took direct aim at DDT in her book Silent Spring.
02:30She warned that the chemical was contaminating ecosystems,
02:34disrupting food chains, and endangering human health.
02:38The book laid the groundwork for the organic movement,
02:42and demand for organic food increased throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
02:48There was no consensus about what organic was, what was the definition of organic.
02:55Some states had their own organic standards, and there were private organic standards.
03:00That all changed in 1990.
03:03That year, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act.
03:07It led to the creation of the National Organic Program and a unified definition of organic.
03:13Food made without synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and later genetically modified organisms.
03:21It started this movement towards a national standard, which really was helpful to the industry
03:28because people knew what they were buying when they bought organic.
03:32In 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took it a step further,
03:36by establishing uniform national standards for the production, handling, and labeling of organic food,
03:43creating the USDA Organic Seal.
03:47Today, organic food in the U.S. is a $70.1 billion industry,
03:53so there's a lot of money to be made if you can get the organic label.
03:59We traveled to Sonora, Mexico to see what it takes and how much it costs to get the official seal.
04:08Wholesome Family Farms runs 86 acres of farmland in both the U.S. and Mexico.
04:15What we do here is all organic. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers.
04:21These are what we call tomatoes on the vine, four or five per cluster.
04:26These are cherries on the vine.
04:29We grow our Long English cucumbers or Euro cucumbers.
04:34The produce grown here is sold year-round at retail grocery stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts.
04:41Even though Wholesome has been around for nearly a century,
04:44it received its first organic certification in 1992,
04:49before turning the whole company organic in 2010.
04:52My dad went to a school in California in the 60s and read the book Silent Spring.
04:59He began experimenting in the 80s and then my brothers and I came to the business in the late 90s,
05:06early 2000s.
05:07And in 2010, we decided to convert the whole company to organic.
05:12Making the switch to organic wasn't cheap.
05:17Even before certification costs, there are tons of other expenses that go into organic farming.
05:24Like these $5.5 million, six-acre greenhouses, where Wholesome grows 65,000 tomato plants.
05:33Greenhouse growing is a popular method for organic farming,
05:36because it can prevent pests from reaching the plants.
05:41It also helps farmers control temperature and humidity for crops, which can help prevent fungal diseases.
05:48But greenhouses like these are a big investment.
05:51Just one of these structures can cost $55,000 a year to maintain.
05:58And greenhouses are just the first step in Wholesome's fight against pests.
06:17All this hands-on work comes with a price.
06:21Wholesome says it pays 10% more in labor costs just from pest control and prevention.
06:28Once the infestation is in the greenhouse, it's very hard to correct it.
06:33They're natural systems, so that means that you can't really control it all.
06:38Natural pest control methods like these are typically less effective than pesticides,
06:43which can eliminate infestations more quickly.
06:49In a conventional field, what you could do is use a pesticide that is strong enough.
06:55You might not be able to harvest for a week or two, but at least you've salvaged the crop.
07:01For us, an event like that would mean clean it out and start all over again.
07:05So we are scouting for whiteflies, ingitatus, aphids, much more carefully than a conventional grower would.
07:14Yields is what really kind of drives the economics in agriculture.
07:20Our ability to produce is hindered by all the circumstances that we have to deal with.
07:26And it reduces our yield for sure.
07:28To retain its certification, Wholesome Farms has to pass an inspection every year.
07:34They all check all our records of what we did through the year, what inputs we used,
07:39how many and how much products we actually harvest, we sold.
07:43There's also a lot of tracking of providing traceability to make sure there is compliance with the standards.
07:51They will look for evidence that we're actually doing our prevention program.
07:57They will look to make sure that the crop is there.
08:00Wholesome says all of these additional steps in organic operations cost it 20 to 25 percent
08:07more than they would on a conventional farm.
08:09And that's all before the price of the certification itself.
08:14According to the USDA, the average annual organic certification cost
08:19rose from approximately $1,500 in 2014 to around $2,800 by 2019.
08:26On top of that, new farms seeking certification have to pay an application fee.
08:31And for farmers renewing certification, there's an annual renewal fee.
08:37We typically spend about 35,000 U.S. dollars in certifying the company.
08:43And we have to abide by a regulatory framework established by the USDA.
08:49For large farms like Wholesome, these costs are a drop in the bucket.
08:54In 2025, Wholesome Family Farms made approximately $105 million in revenue.
09:02I think the USDA organic seal, which you can see here in our boxes, is what people know,
09:08that that's something that they can trust.
09:12According to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture, 75 percent of all U.S. agricultural
09:19sales come from large farming operations, a consolidation trend that extends across
09:24the organic sector as well.
09:27Some small farms like this one used to be certified organic, but no longer are,
09:33because they say they can't afford the certification fees.
09:36Even though they still follow organic requirements.
09:42Harry Jones has run his family-owned blueberry farm since 2018.
09:48Unlike Wholesome, Bridge Avenue Berries primarily focuses on a single crop.
09:54We have almost seven acres of blueberries out there, about 3,800 plants.
09:59We filmed with them weeks before the start of blueberry season.
10:05We are in central Pennsylvania, right along the west branch of the Susquehanna River,
10:10which gives us wonderful soil, which is perfect for growing blueberries.
10:15When he and his wife Susan first bought the farm,
10:18they saw the benefits of investing in USDA organic certification.
10:23If you're USDA certified organic, that's an accomplishment, that's an achievement.
10:29And people are going to notice that and hopefully build more value in the marketplace than what we
10:33would have if we were not organic.
10:36They transitioned to a certified organic farm in 2021.
10:40Being USDA certified organic certainly opened up opportunities.
10:45And the public perception was, ooh, clean blueberries to eat.
10:50This is good stuff, you know.
10:53We had people stop here who said, man, I've looked for an organic blueberry farm
10:56for a long time. You're here.
10:59We had three local newspapers put it out when we became certified organic.
11:03And we did see sales increases.
11:04We saw people coming to the farm who had never been here.
11:08And so that was, that was good.
11:11At the time, Harry and Susan sold their blueberries for $3.50 a pint.
11:16We knew we had more costs and we knew we had to charge more for our berries.
11:20And so we did.
11:22Still, the cost of staying certified organic started to add up.
11:27The biggest thing was the $1,400 a year going out the door.
11:31We're a small blueberry farm.
11:33So that took a, that took a large chunk out of our net profit, really.
11:38Harry and Susan decided not to maintain their USDA certification three years later in 2024.
11:44But they've continued to farm using organic methods.
11:49Just like the farmers at Wholesome, they use natural solutions and techniques to prevent pests
11:54and fungal disease.
11:56We put out sticky traps and we look for a fruit fly that likes to lay its eggs in the
12:01blueberries.
12:02But as soon as we see them hit the sticky traps, we will apply a spray.
12:06It's called Grandivo.
12:08It's derived from, from soil funguses that some scientists, some place found,
12:12which I'm grateful for.
12:14And that controls our blueberry fruit fly population.
12:18We spray a lime sulfur mix early in the spring to control Phomopsis tip blight,
12:24which is a fungal disease.
12:26Harry says he uses organic fertilizers to keep the farm soil healthy.
12:31You take care of that soil.
12:33You produce a plant that's healthy and vibrant.
12:38And then it produces berries that smell like blueberries,
12:41that taste like blueberries.
12:43And this is proof that growing organically really makes a difference in the quality of food that we eat.
12:50Despite their all-natural growing methods, Harry says...
12:54We can't use the O-word, the organic word, on any packaging, any promotions, any advertising.
13:02Without organic certification, Harry and Susan have to charge less than certified competitors.
13:08That's pushed them to sell locally or directly to consumers,
13:12which gives them control over pricing, but a smaller customer base.
13:16We sell by the pound.
13:18And I think this past year we were at $2.70 a pound, $2.70 a pound.
13:23It would be nice to be able to charge more, but do you charge more and not sell your product?
13:28Or do you charge what you can, the traffic will bear, and sell your product?
13:34We're not going broke, but are we recovering everything that we've put into this?
13:40No, we're probably not.
13:44So how do all these costs show up for consumers?
13:48Turns out plenty of Americans are still willing to pay extra for that little green label.
13:53According to Fortune, nearly 90% of U.S. shoppers recognize the USDA organic seal,
13:59and more than 70% trust it.
14:03Consumers believe in it, and they believe that if it says it's organic, that it actually is organic.
14:08I think that there still is trust in the government to regulate food.
14:13Demand is especially high among younger shoppers.
14:16A 2025 Organic Trade Association survey found millennials and Gen Z buy the most organic food,
14:23driven by a desire to avoid pesticides, GMOs, synthetic hormones, and antibiotics.
14:29But is organic always the healthier option?
14:33The short answer? It depends.
14:35Organic foods tend to have lower levels of pesticide residue.
14:39And some studies show higher levels of certain antioxidants, especially in produce.
14:45But when it comes to overall vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients, the differences are often minimal.
14:52Some researchers have found that there's a halo effect, so people think organic is more healthy.
14:58Even though that really hasn't been proven. There's the safety side that it wouldn't have
15:03pesticide residue, but there's no scientific consensus that it's healthier.
15:08And not all foods benefit equally when it comes to organic.
15:12Take a look at the groceries our shoppers bought earlier.
15:15According to the Environmental Working Group's 2026 Shopper's Guide,
15:19organic avocados and bananas may offer limited benefits in reducing pesticide exposure because
15:26they have thick skins that typically don't get eaten.
15:29Meanwhile, foods eaten whole, like blueberries, are more likely to retain residues if not grown organically.
15:37Meat and dairy products can also have higher pesticide exposure through animal feed,
15:42making organic options often the better choice.
15:46I buy both conventional and organic, so I'm not just set on only having organic.
15:51I actually am more into the quality of the produce.
15:58For organic food consumers, there is some good news.
16:01The price gap between organic and conventional food is shrinking.
16:06In 2021, prices for organic produce cost about 71% more than conventional ones.
16:13Today, that gap is closer to 61%.
16:17That shift is being driven by more organic production and better supply chain efficiency,
16:22which have brought organic prices down.
16:25But organic still comes at a premium, even as grocery prices have risen across the board.
16:30If things continue the way that they're going, I expect that it will be for
16:37the higher income people and not for the lower income people.
16:42Meanwhile, the USDA gives small farmers financial relief through the Organic Certification Cost Share
16:48Program, which reimburses organic farmers for up to 75% of certification costs.
16:54Congress failed to fund the program for 2025, and funding for 2026 still hasn't been released.
17:01Other farmers have instead turned to alternative natural certifications, like Harry and Susan.
17:08Bridge Avenue Berries has been Certified Naturally Grown since 2024.
17:14Certified Naturally Grown is a grassroots program that follows similar standards to organic,
17:20but uses peer inspections rather than government certifiers, making it more affordable for small farmers.
17:26We're not a mega-bazillion-pound blueberry producer. We're a small producer.
17:31And they also function off of the National Organic Program.
17:36Harry says it's also been more cost-effective.
17:39So instead of paying $14 or $1,450 a year, we pay about $350 a year.
17:45There are often times that I have to explain. We are still farming organically. We've just changed our
17:50certifying agency. And as soon as you say that, people are like, oh, okay, that's good.
17:56We just think it's a good fit. And we wanted our customers to be comfortable with the fact that
18:02we're being audited. We're being checked. We're being kept honest.
18:07And we want them to know that they're going home with good food.
18:26Take care.
18:27.
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