"People who buy organic are often willing to pay twice as much for organic foods-"
Organic produce, as of 2001, accounts for only 4.6% of US produce sales, so not many people are willing to pay whatever premium is actually being charged. Besides, organic produce presents its own set of health risks, is considerably more expensive to produce (e.g. it requires significantly more land be tilled for the same output, which, BTW, results in more water quality problems due to runoff of sediments, not to mention fertilizers), and is often perceived by consumers to be of inferior quality to conventionally farmed produce. In any case, organic is not a viable option for China unless they want to bring about population reduction through mass starvation. A more viable option is integrated pest management (IPM) agriculture, but studies so far in the US and other advanced economies show only rather limited, if any, WTP for the environmental and health benefits of IPM produce, so IPM really needs to be justified (economically) primarily on other grounds (which does appear reasonably likely).
"I think I would be willing to pay two, maybe even three times as much for environmentally friendly- especially if it was made in America, and was providing a living wage for someone somewhere in this country."
Touching sentiment, but, certainly on the latter two points if not all, economically unjustifiable (i.e. irrational) behavior. |
