Organic food is much more expensive because the farmers don't use artificial fertilisers, but compost and manure, no herbicides so they have to remove the weeds manually, and no pesticides so their crops may be much smaller due to losses caused by insects, moulds and microbes.

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Non-organic food is also cheaper than organic food for the simple fact that conventional farming is subsidised by government and organic farming is not. So intensively farmed foods are actually paid for by you, the tax payer.

This situation arose after the severe food shortages of World War II. Governments wanted to protect their people from future famines and the new chemical technologies of the 1950s offered a solution. To encourage an abundance of food, European governments subsidised the use of chemicals in farming.

The new agro chemicals also made food far cheaper to produce and cut down the risk of farmers losing their entire crop to pests. Organic farmers however face huge risks and lower yields, which both push up the price of their products.

Organic farming is very labour intensive. On conventional farms, machines have replaced manpower, but on organic farms, human input is important.

Organic farming is also more expensive because the start-up costs and the accreditation processes are high.
 

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