Growing organic potatoes is more expensive and time-consuming than conventional methods due to the need for crop rotation, hand weeding, and non-chemical pest control. Organic farms have lower yields and higher costs, but produce healthier food and soil.
For each type of crop a farmer wants to grow organically, without the aid of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, a different set of difficulties is presented. Producing a profitable crop of organic potatoes, for example, will likely require more time and money spent pre-market and a higher price at the produce stand than those grown by conventional means. The payback is vegetables free of toxins potentially harmful to people and their lands.
The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin found in a 1990 study of organic potatoes that those grown with chemical pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified fertilizers and seeds had higher yields and lower costs. . In one year, the conventional farms in the study produced about 32,800 lbs. (nearly 15,000 kg) per acre of potatoes, while organic farms produced about 21,200 lbs. (nearly 10,000 kg) per acre. Additionally, organic farms were slightly more expensive to operate, with prices averaging at $1,074 US dollars (USD) per acre, compared to $928 (USD) per acre for conventional farms. To compete, UW noted that organic farmers have had to raise prices dramatically to justify their work.
The extra cost and time associated with growing organic potatoes comes with several factors. Instead of using chemical fertilizers or herbicides to tamp down potato diseases, farmers need to seed over fields that yielded corn or alfalfa the previous year to ward off certain diseases. Farmers must harvest weeds by hand or use non-chemical remedies to kill weeds, rather than weeds that smother the crop with herbicides.
Perhaps the biggest threat to organic potatoes is the many pests attracted to them. Typically, farmers will use potentially harmful insecticides to drive away insects most attracted to plants. According to the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology, these bugs can be divided into two reasons. Aboveground threats are small aphids, potato grasshoppers, and potato beetles. Beneath the soil are the equally devastating white grubs and brown thread worms. These are just the most prevalent threats in that part of the world.
Organic potatoes require special fertilizers, insecticides, moisture management, and crop rotations to produce a marketable yield. This is also likely to mean more time spent eradicating pests and diseases. However, the higher cost in the market results in healthier soil in which plants are grown and healthier food on the table.
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