After all, they save on the cost of fertilizer and pesticides.
And, for example, at a farmers’ market, how do you really know that apples haven’t been sprayed with poison?
At a farmers market, a lot of the food has been pesticided. Farmers market does not equal organic. You need to ask the farmer.
As to costing so much, supply, demand, and issues related to supply - like lower field yields and shorter shelf life.
If it were cheaper to grow food organically, the producers of non-organic food would be growing it organically, too.
Just a WAG, but without fertilizer you are looking at a much lower yield per acre, combine that with higher crop loss due to pests and you need to charge more to make going organic financially wise .
And some people will pay a premium for idea. I was at a Whole Foods and one customer was filling her bag with oranges and telling the other customer how much better the organic oranges were and right there is front of her face was sign that said these were imported oranges and were not organic.
No, they lose money by having their crops eaten by pests, and not growing as well in mediocre soil.
I have to chime in with the others that cited lowered crop yields. Organic farmers are growing for quality, not quantity*.
*I speak as someone that has been growing organically for decades, I only use horse-poop and compost for fertilizer. As for pests, I figure I grow enough for everyone, and SaferSoap only goes so far.
Organic food is not (generally) grown without fertilizer, pesticides, or poisons. They just use older, less effective ones, which raises the cost (via the aforementioned lower yields).