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We gave these two shoppers the same exact grocery list, but there's just one difference. This shopper is only buying food that has this label. Organic iceberg lettuce cost $5.99, more than double the price of regular iceberg lettuce. A pound of organic ground beef cost $14.99, about 80% more than a pound of regular ground beef. And this pint of organic blueberries cost $12.99, 44.5% more than the regular pint. In total, the all organic shopper spent 72.4% more. The organic label was designed to give Americans a trustworthy standard for healthier food. But decades later, it's become a system that rewards large companies and leaves
many small farmers behind. We can't use the O word, the organic word, on any packaging, any promotions, any advertising. So what makes organic food so expensive? And if some food grown organically can't be labeled as such, is organic really worth the extra cost? Before the 1940s, most food grown in the US would have been considered organic by today's standards. But that changed in the aftermath of World War II. Chemicals originally developed for combat were repurposed as synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Farmers began using them on farms across the US. And it worked. Crop yields increased and food production surged. But this practice sparked a backlash
centered on one chemical in particular. It's a mouthful to say, so people call it DDT for short. DDT was originally used to protect soldiers from malaria, but it is also really good at controlling crop-damaging pests. Less dependence upon nature and more control in managing his crop. It soon became one of the most widely used pesticides in the world. Then in 1962, marine biologist Rachel Carson took direct aim at DDT in her book Silent Spring. She warned that the chemical was contaminating ecosystems, disrupting food chains, and endangering human health. The book laid the groundwork for the organic movement, and demand for organic food increased throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s. But,
there was no consensus about what organic was. Like, what was the definition of organic. So, some states had their own organic standards, and there were private organic standards. That all changed in 1990. That year, Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act. It led to the creation of the National Organic Program and a unified definition of organic. Food made without synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and later genetically modified organisms. It started this movement towards a national standard, which really was helpful to the industry because people knew what they were buying when they bought organic. In 2002, the US Department of Agriculture took it a step further by
establishing uniform national standards for the production, handling, and labeling of organic food, creating the USDA organic seal. Today, organic food in the US is a 70.1 billion-dollar industry. So, there's a lot of money to be made if you can get the organic label. We traveled to Sonora, Mexico to see what it takes and how much it costs to get the official seal. Wholesome Family Farms runs 86 acres of farmland in both the US and Mexico.
What we do here is all organic. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. These are what we call tomatoes on the vine, four or five per cluster. These are cherries on the vine. We grow our long English cucumbers or Euro cucumbers. The produce grown here is sold year-round at retail grocery stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts. Even though Wholesome has been around for nearly a century, it received its first organic certification in 1992 before turning the whole company organic in 2010. My dad went to school in California in the '60s and read the book Silent Spring.
He began experimenting in the '80s and then my brothers and I came to the business in the late '90s, early 2000s and in 2010 we decided to convert the whole company to organic. Making the switch to organic wasn't cheap. Even before certification costs, there are tons of other expenses that go into organic farming like these 5.5 million dollar six-acre greenhouses where Wholesome grows 65,000 tomato plants. Greenhouse growing is a popular method for organic farming because it can prevent pests from reaching the plants. It also helps farmers control temperature and humidity for crops which can help prevent fungal diseases. But, greenhouses like these are a big
investment. Just one of these structures can cost $55,000 a year to maintain. And greenhouses are just the first step in Wholesome's fight against pests. All this hands-on work comes with a price. Wholesome says it pays 10% more in labor costs just from pest control and prevention. Once the infestation is in the greenhouse, it's very hard to correct it. They're natural systems, so that means that you can't really control it all. Natural pest control methods like these are typically less effective than pesticides,
which can eliminate infestations more quickly. In a conventional field, what you could do is I use a pesticide that is strong enough. You might not be able to harvest for a week or two, but at least you've salvaged the crop. For us, an event like that would mean clean it out and start all over again. So, we are scouting for whiteflies, engorged tomatoes, aphids much more carefully than a conventional grower would. Yields is what really kind of drives the economics in agriculture. Our ability to produce is hindered by all these circumstances that we have to deal with, and it reduces our yield for sure. To retain its certification, Wholesome
Farms has to pass an inspection every year. They all check all our records of what we did through the year, what inputs we used, how many and how much products we actually harvest, we sold. There's also a lot of tracking of providing traceability to make sure there is compliance with the standards. They will look for evidence that we're actually doing a prevention program. They will look to make sure that the crop is there. Uh Wholesome says all of these additional steps in organic operations cost it 20 to 25% more than they would on a conventional farm. And that's all before the price of the certification itself.
According to the USDA, the average annual organic certification cost rose from approximately $1,500 in 2014 to around $2,800 by 2019. On top of that, new farms seeking certification have to pay an application fee. And for farmers renewing certification, there's an annual renewal fee. We typically spend about 35,000 US dollars in certifying the company, and we have to abide by a regulatory framework um established by the USDA. For large farms like Wholesome, these costs are a drop in the bucket. In 2025, Wholesome Family Farms made approximately $105 million in revenue. I think the USDA organic seal, which you can see here in our boxes, is what people know that uh that's something that they can trust.
According to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture, 75% of all US agricultural sales come from large farming operations. A consolidation trend that extends across the organic sector as well. Some small farms like this one used to be certified organic, but no longer are because they say they can't afford the certification fees, even though they still follow organic requirements. Harry Jones has run his family-owned blueberry farm since 2018. Unlike Wholesome, Bridge Avenue Berries primarily focuses on a single crop.
We have almost 7 acres of blueberries out there, about 3,800 plants. We filmed with them weeks before the start of blueberry season. We are in Central Pennsylvania, right along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, which gives us wonderful soil, which is perfect for growing blueberries. When he and his wife Susan first bought the farm, they saw the benefits of investing in USDA organic certification. If you're USDA certified organic, that's an accomplishment, that's an achievement, and people are going to notice that and hopefully build more value in the marketplace than what we would have if we were not organic.
They transitioned to a certified organic farm in 2021. Being USDA certified organic certainly opened up opportunities, and the public perception was, "Ooh, clean blueberries to eat. This is good stuff, you know." We had people stop here who said, "Man, I've looked for an organic blueberry farm for a long time. You're here." We had three local newspapers put it out when we became certified organic, and we did see sales increase. We saw people coming to the farm who had never been here. And so, that was good. At the time, Harry and Susan sold their blueberries for $3.50 a pint.
We knew we had more costs, and we knew we had to charge more for our berries, and so we did. Still, the cost of staying certified organic started to add up. The biggest thing was the $1,400 a year going out the door. We're a small blueberry farm. Uh so that took a I took a large chunk out of our net profit, really. Harry and Susan decided not to maintain their USDA certification 3 years later in 2024. But they've continued to farm using organic methods. Just like the farmers at Wholesome, they use natural solutions and techniques to prevent pests and fungal disease. We put out sticky traps and we look for a fruit fly that likes to lay its eggs in the blueberries.
Uh but as soon as we see them hit the sticky traps, we will apply a spray. Uh it's called Grandevo. It's derived from soil funguses that some scientists someplace found, which I'm grateful for. And that controls our blueberry fruit fly population. We spray a lime sulfur mix early in the spring to control Phomopsis tip blight, which is a fungal disease. Harry says he uses organic fertilizers to keep the farm soil healthy. You take care of that soil, you produce a plant that's healthy and vibrant, and then it produces berries that smell like blueberries, that taste like and it this is proof that growing
organically really makes a difference in the quality of food that we eat. Despite their all-natural growing methods, Harry says we can't use the O word, the organic word, on any packaging, uh any promotions, any advertising. Without organic certification, Harry and Susan have to charge less than certified competitors. That's pushed them to sell locally or directly to consumers, which gives them control over pricing, but a smaller customer base. We sell by the pound, and I think this past year we were $2.70 a pound, $2.70 a pound. It would be nice to be able to charge more, but do you charge more and not sell your product, or do you charge what you can the traffic will bear and sell your product?
We're not going broke, but are we recovering everything that we put into this? No, we're probably not. So, how do all these costs show up for consumers? Turns out plenty of Americans are still willing to pay extra for that little green label. According to Fortune, nearly 90% of US shoppers recognize the USDA organic seal and more than 70% trust it. Consumers believe in it and they believe that if it says it's organic that it actually is organic. I think that there still is trust in the government to regulate food. Demand is especially high among younger shoppers.
A 2025 Organic Trade Association survey found millennials and Gen Z buy the most organic food, driven by a desire to avoid pesticides, GMOs, synthetic hormones, and antibiotics. But is organic always the healthier option? The short answer, it depends. Organic foods tend to have lower levels of pesticide residue and some studies show higher levels of certain antioxidants, especially in produce. But when it comes to overall vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients, the differences are often minimal. Some researchers have found that there's a halo effect, so people think organic is more healthy, even though that really hasn't been proven.
There's the safety side that it wouldn't have pesticide residue, but there's no scientific consensus that it's healthier. And not all foods benefit equally when it comes to organic. Take a look at the groceries our shoppers bought earlier. According to the Environmental Working Group's 2026 Shopper's Guide, organic avocados and bananas may offer limited benefits in reducing pesticide exposure because they have thick skins that typically don't get eaten. Meanwhile, foods eaten whole like blueberries are more likely to retain residues if not grown organically.
Meat and dairy products can also have higher pesticide exposure through animal feed, making organic options often the better choice. I buy both conventional and organic, so I'm not just um set on only having organic. I actually am more into the quality of the produce. For organic food consumers, there is some good news. The price gap between organic and conventional food is shrinking. In 2021, prices for organic produce cost about 71% more than conventional ones.
Today, that gap is closer to 61%. That shift is being driven by more organic production and better supply chain efficiency, which have brought organic prices down. But organic still comes at a premium, even as grocery prices have risen across the board. If things continue the way that they're going, I expect that it will be for the higher-income people and not for the lower-income people. Meanwhile, the USDA gives small farmers financial relief through the organic certification cost-share program, which reimburses organic farmers for up to 75% of certification costs.
Congress failed to fund the program for 2025, and funding for 2026 still hasn't been released. Other farmers have instead turned to alternative natural certifications, like Carrie and Susan. Bridge Avenue Berries has been certified naturally grown since 2024. Certified Naturally Grown is a grassroots program that follows similar standards to organic but uses peer inspections rather than government certifiers, making it more affordable for small farmers. We're not a mega bazillion pound blueberry producer. We're a small And they also function off of the national organic program.
Harry says it's also been more cost-effective. So instead of paying 14 or $1450 a year, we pay about $350 a year. There are often times that I have to explain we are still farming organically. We've just changed our certifying agency. And as soon as you say that, people are like, "Oh, okay. That's good." We just think it's a good fit. And we wanted our customers to be comfortable with the fact that we're being audited, we're being checked, we're being kept honest. And uh we want them to know that they're going home with good food.
