Why Is Organic Food More Expensive?
6th March 2025
Organic food production is heavily regulated—forbidding genetically modified organisms as well as approximately 700 chemicals that are used in non-organic agriculture—and certification is required.
To achieve organic certification, farmers spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars annually to comply with record keeping requirements and prepare for regular document and facility inspections.
Non-organic farms do not have such overhead costs and thus have fewer expenses priced into the cost of goods sold.
Throughout the growing seasons, organic farms cost more to operate for a variety of reasons, and subsidies that disproportionately benefit chemically intensive agriculture exacerbate the price discrepancies, according to advocates for the organic industry.
As usual, when the question is “Why is [something] more expensive?”, the answer is almost invariably “the government”.