The link does not load for me but I doubt those numbers. Where I live (Austria) organic farming is significantly more expensive primarily because it requires more human labor. I suspect that depends on how tou regulate organic vs non organic food however.
I suspect the American interpretation of "organic" is much less strict than the European one. Also, there would probably be much less regulation and control of the production process because free market.
I would be interested in some examples of the labour discrepancy. When I think of the difference attributable to organic farming it is mainly around lower crop yields.
I would be curious to hear a bit more about this. From my recollection, just about every single piece of vegetable matter in any given Viennese Billa would come from outside Austria (potatoes being the exception). Is there US style industrial agriculture in Austria (I'm afraid I never ventured out of Wien and surrounding Niederosterreich area)?
That depends on the season though, in summer almost everything seems to come from austrian farms.
we don't have us style industrial agriculture in austria. our fields are tiny compared to the US (avg farm size is 40 acres; and we really don't have those superfarms [2000+ acres] that seem to be common in the US). same goes for livestock, a farmer doesn't have anywhere near the same number of say kettle on his/her farm.
I don't really know a great deal about farming in Austria, but as the other poster pointed out, there isn't really industrial agriculture US style that I am aware of.
However, a couple of examples:
- Austria has a pretty decent wine industry, with vineyard clusters in numerous locations around the country; south east Styria, Krems/Wachau, Burgenland, just south of Vienna.
- In Styria, there's plenty of pumpkin growing, which are mostly used to make pumpkin oil, which is an outstanding salad dressing.
- Also in Styria, there is a pretty big apple growing industry around Gleisdorf/Weiz to the east of Graz.
- There are some reasonably big cropping operations in the east of the country in Burgenland where the landscape is more rolling hills than high alps.
