A tonne

How much "value added" is there? Say, to something like wheat.

This website gives a price today for organic wheat at $10.50 (US) per bushel, which is roughly 27kg of wheat. Which is about $390 per tonne.

A few days ago Kara bought 1kg of organic flour for $4.50 (CAD)

Just imagine if the farmer got $4.50 per kg - that's $4,500 per tonne. Or, about 10-11 times as much as they are getting wholesale.

What happened to the wheat Kara bought? Well, it was milled, obviously; it was while flour so it had the bran and germ removed.

The other thing is, that same website lists the non-organic price of wheat - about $3/bushel cheaper. $3 for 27kg of flour.

Why is organic bread 50% more expensive than conventional bread? Certainly not because of the price of the wheat - which is the organic bit!

Someone is making a tonne here. And it's not the farmer - organic or otherwise.

This is probably not enough evidence to prove that "organic is a (financial) con" - there are scales of economy, but really... nobody has integrity, they are all just out to maximise profit, and "organic" seems to mean "middle class, well-enough off, can afford it" - it's just a lifestyle brand. It shouldn't be - it should be something everyone can choose to buy not based on (much) price difference.

Don't get me wrong - market gardening *is* expensive because of the labour cost, because labour is expensive here in Canada, in the UK (unless you get freebie interns, at roughly the cost of 1/3 a paid worker on minimum wage).

But the larger companies that have organic running along conventional.. ugh. Premium product, premium profit.

Did I mention I want to grow my own? ;)