Alkon presents a point I agree with that is often overlooked in the struggle to disperse healthy foods to all people. She argues that while it is important to lean towards healthy eating for ourselves, it is sometimes even more important to lean into why others might choose not to eat healthy foods. It brings up a point in my mind that even if all fifty states grew more healthy foods, the price would likely remain the same. The inputs to maintain organic farms large enough to feed a significant amount of people are typically much more than a conventional farm for many reasons, but some important ones being that yield per acre is typically far less on organic farms, and labor costs are much higher when you can't use machinery. So anyone choosing mostly cheaper and unhealthy foods probably still would if the abundance of healthy food was multiplied, simply because the way the food system is designed, the prices would likely stay the same. Making the farm bigger does not alone reduce the cost the consumer pays. Another point to back Alkon up is that some organic growers sell products for more than they need to. According to the USDA, in 2011-2014, the cost difference for organic corn was about $1.92-$2.27 more than conventional, but was being sold for up to $10 more per bushel than conventional corn, giving the farm significant profit, but gatekeeping the products to those who can afford to spend money on an unnecessary premium. The USDA also claims that during 2011-2014, the same story happened with organic soybean being sold for up to $15 more per bushel than conventional soybean even though the cost difference between conventional and organic soybean production was around $7. Obviously any worker wants to make a profit, but is it too high, or do these organic farmers need the income to continue scaling larger to reach more people? Alkon touches a lot on the history of American farm culture and the racism that steered a lot of it to make it what it is today. While that is all important to know, I think she could have benefitted from shedding more light on what remains today from old school farm culture, like policies and zoning laws that restrict where certain stores can be, where people can live, vote, etc. that all continue to make it harder for someone to cross that line from unhealthy to healthy. Some even ban people from growing their own food. Please refer to the SFSU link at the bottom to read more about zoning being used in this way. If an individual wanted to eat healthy, and the closest organic store to them was 45+ minutes away, chances are they are going to have some unhealthy or less healthy choices to eat between visits. Even if they like the taste and are okay with it, it is still a choice against their will.
https://basicneeds.sfsu.edu/news/how-zoning-laws-affect-both-grocery-deserts-and-housing-scarcity
https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2015/november/despite-profit-potential-organic-field-crop-acreage-remains-low
1 comment:
I've always abstractly held the notion the organic food is more expensive than need be. I haven't looked into the data of it too much and what I have seen shows conflicting results - some conclude organic produce is cheaper while others conclude that it is more expensive. Most likely this is highly variable depending on location and time of year. One instance where the price of local produce is kind of a catch-22 is when it comes to meat. Meat prices at the supermarket are exuberantly high when you look at the $/pound - regardless of organic/free-range/etc, meat is getting very expensive and large factory farms are putting small family farms out of business. However, buying meat from a local farm/butcher can be significantly less expensive when you purchase in bulk. Buying a whole steer from a local meat farm near where I grew up will cost you $4.20/lb (https://www.cedarmeadowmeats.com/freezer-beef.html), compare that to the average price of beef in the US as of December 2025, ~$6.70/lb (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000703112). The catch 22 here is, you have to buy a *whole cow* worth of meat, which is 580 pounds, for a total of over $2,400. Low income families almost certainly do not have over $2,000 to spend on quality meat. So while it is *technically* more economical to purchase meat in bulk locally, it is not an option unless you have $2,000 to spend on meat.
All of this said, I think the issues of yield, returns, and costs all come down to an issue with the inherent design of the food system we have. Larger fields or lower input costs will not result in lower prices, because unfortunately we live in a system that puts a price tag on basic human necessities and I think that price tags needs to be removed from the equation. The system itself needs to be examined and changed in a way where everyone has access to the same quality of food.
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