ANSWER TO ORGANIC QUESTION NO. 1

Please be patient it may take awhile for us to get to your question.  We do value your questions

Why are organic products so dear?

There are many reasons why they are dearer.

1. Because they are a superior tasting product.
2. Because there have been no chemicals or manmade fertilisers put on the soil.
3. The flavour of the product is much better than conventional grown food, and safer.
4. The food is richer in the nutrients that our bodies need.
5. Conventional grown food has so many nutrients lacking, that we are eating virtually synthetic food.
6. High demand and lower supply. 

Well it takes 4 years of being audited and following organic principles even before you can put an
accredited logo on your product.  If in that time, something happens, like overspray from a neighbour, you can
be put back a year or so.  You are in fact letting people know that your produce is free from any harmful chemicals
and people are now aware of the danger of that.  Not many know of the long haul to get to this status.

Also when you farm organically, you are doing things on a much more labour intensive system.  You can't
spray weeds, you need to dig them up or use alternative methods.  You can't backline cattle for worms, you need to use minerals to combat this problem. or rotate your paddocks, so your stock isn't eating over contaminated pastures.  This involves fencing. You can't dip sheep or use any of the proprietary brands for flystrike as the chemicals in these are against organic principles.  There are now some proprietary brands coming out, which make things a bit easier for our sheep people.  Because of the lack of information (we know we didn't have a lot when we started with cattle and sheep) there are quite a few people who start out but get lost along the way.  It is always hard to make a stand when everyone expects you to use chemicals to combat a common problem like locusts or baiting for foxes.  We know, what it is like, as most time if the problem is not going away, it will be the organic farmer who gets the blame, because they didn't join the programme.  Not that this makes organic produce dearer, it is just a part of the lifestyle.

The yield is often less especially on fruit, crops and grapes when you are starting out.  However, your input costs have been cheaper, as you haven't had to buy the expensive herbicides.  So whereas, you won't get a high yield, you can often expect a higher price for organic crops. It all balances out............but your biggest advantage is that your soil is healthy to receive another crop and you are protecting your family from farming with dangerous chemicals.