One Farmer Parses Organic vs. Local Costs

At a panel I moderated yesterday for Woman Chefs and Restaurateurs, Jim Crawford, an organic vegetable farmer in south-central Pennsylvania, made an interesting point.

He said growing crops organically did not add to cost on the farm -- what added to cost was location, since smaller eastern farmers have four disadvantages compared with produce farmers on the West Coast. 

• First, economies of scale. Since eastern farmers operate on a smaller scale they cannot match the cost advantages of larger operations.
• Secondly, labor costs. His costs are higher than on the West Coast, where labor is often outsourced to crews of migrant workers.
• Third, seasonality. Since the growing season is shorter, he can't get as much productivity out of his land as a California operation producing 10 months or more a year.
• Fourth, weather. He marveled that one strawberry farmer in California told him it hardly if ever rained during the growing season. A couple of heavy rain storms on Jim's strawberries fields and they might be lost to plant disease.

That said, he noted that Tuscarora Organic Growers -- the farm co-op he helped start 20 years ago and which now has over 30-farm members -- was making strides in extending production into the winter months, especially with greens. It's doing nearly $3 million in sales in the mid-Atlantic region. 

- Samuel Fromartz

Comments

[Canada Guy]

Organic farming methods offer several benefits for the environment and human health as a whole, but unfortunately, there are many misconceptions and falsehoods being spread regarding organic food and farming methods, both by proponents and detractors. Here are the facts about what organic methods can do for us and what they can't.

http://www.selfdestructivebastards.com/2009/11/organic-myths-and-realities.html

[Sam Fromartz]

Thanks for that comment. There are other resources looking at benefits of organic and evaluating science. I'd recommend http://www.organic-center.org as one resource and also the first and 2nd chapters of my book Organic Inc.

[Lauren]

Seems to me this is more about farmers in California, than on the West coast in general. There are some larger operations in Oregon & Washington, especially on the East side of the Cascades, where most of our fruit comes from, but not like in CA. In Puget Sound, where I grow, there aren't many folks over 100 acres. I think most people are under 25 acres, staffed with interns, not migrant workers. And while we do have a year-round growing season, it's limited in the winter -- much of the same stuff that East coast farmers overwinter, but we can do it outside or under mulch or small hoop houses, while they have to do it in greenhouses. And oh yes, OR and WA are very much at the mercy of the weather.

Talking recently with a farmer friend in Montana, in fact, I realized that a hard freeze has advantages that we don't get, like reliably killing a cover crop or diseases/pests.