What are the Disadvantages of Organic Farming?

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Editorial Staff  

While there are certainly many good things about organic farming, it also has its downsides as well and it is very obvious in the disadvantages of organic farming. These disadvantages can be divided into two distinct but related concerns: consumers and producers. These are the top reasons why organic farming hasn’t been employed by the majority of the farmers, even if its supporters assert that it is the better method of farming. Here are a few of the disadvantages of organic farming that you need to know.

One of the disadvantages of organic farming is the low productivity of the methods that are used in this type of agriculture. Organic farmers avoid the use of machinery, artificial fertilizers, and chemicals in this type of agriculture. Because of this, it will take more time and effort to plant these organic crops. Organic farmers also have to anticipate a certain level of pest damage on their crops as they do not utilize pesticides. The soil cultivation method that are utilized by farmers are also prone to water and wind erosion. And because they utilize crop diversity as a method of organic farming, the land is not capitalized for a single crop alone. To put it simply, organic farming is a very inefficient way to grow crops.

On the other hand, there are also several disadvantages of organic farming on the part of consumers as well. One that is quite obvious is that organic foods are very costly. Products of organic farming are usually 50-100% more expensive than its traditional counterparts. Advocates of organic farming say that the price is due to the crop failure that is normal in this method of farming, as well as the health benefits that you get from these products. Unfortunately, not all people have the purchasing power to spend on these expensive food. Organic products also have the tendency to become easily spoiled because of their lack of preservatives. Lastly, there is still no scientific consensus regarding the health benefits of organic products.Finally, there is still no clear scientific consensus about the nutritional value of these organic foods.

However, while these disadvantages of organic farming are very pertinent concerns, they are still not adequate to just write off the potentials of this farming method.



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