Money Doesn't Grow On Trees

I have been in the organic-food industry for over thirty-seven years. I have been a retailer, wholesaler, producer, manufacturer, distributor, and IT guy for the largest organic network in the U.S. I will not attempt to repudiate your claims in “Trust but Verify & Serve with a Light Burgundy” [March], although it is very tempting, some are so ludicrous and the logic so ill conceived. I am sometimes asked why organic food is so expensive. I reply, “Why is conventionally raised food so cheap?” The premium prices that some organic growers are paid are merely the prices that every farmer should receive. We are still losing farmers. We are still consolidating farms. Folks are still abandoning rural America after graduating from high school. We pay the lowest percentage for our food of any civilized nation, but no one ever discusses the subsidies that are built into the conventional agriculture system.

P. Marc Schwartz,
St. Paul