Are Organic Farmers Really Better Off Than Conventional Farmers?

Uematsu Hiroki and Ashok Mishra ()

No 103862, 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: We employed the propensity score matching and estimated the causal effect of being certified organic crop producers on farm household income and its various components in the United States. Contrary to the standard assumption in economic analysis, certified organic farmers do not earn significantly higher household income than conventional farmers. Certified organic crop producers earn higher revenue but they incur higher production expenses. In particular, certified organic producers spend significantly more on labor expenses, insurance payments, and marketing charges than conventional farmers. The results suggest that early adopters of organic farmers have done so for non pecuniary reasons and the lack of economic incentives can be an important barrier to conversion to organic farming in the United States.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries; Farm Management; Marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea11:103862

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.103862

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