Organic, Pesticide Free, and Hydroponic Veggies?
Did you know that organic-grown, pesticide-free, and hydroponic vegetables are not the same?
Here are the meanings of these three kinds of vegetables;
Organic vegetables are vegetables that are naturally grown without the use of pesticides. If fertilisers are to be used then they would have to be natural fertilisers Therefore organically grown vegetables are completely chemical free.
Pesticide-free vegetables are vegetables that are grown without using any pesticides but chemical fertilisers can still be used.
Hydroponic Vegetables are vegetables that are grown on pipelines instead of on soils. Pesticides may or may not be used in growing hydroponic vegetables. However, they are by no means chemical free because the food used to feed the vegetables are purely chemical.
However, to learn more about people’s knowledge on this matter, I just recently did a survey on this and here’s the result;
When asked if the respondents know the difference between organic, pesticide-free, and hydroponic vegetables, 33.3 percent said yes and 66.7 percent said no.
48.5 percent of the respondents said when they go to the markets they look for organic vegetables. 9.1 percent look for pesticide-free vegetables. 18.2 percent look hydroponic vegetables. 21.2 percent look for ordinary vegetables. However, 21.2 percent also said they never buy vegetables.
The respondents who said they look for organic, pesticide-free and hydroponic vegetables also said that they would pay more for the products. 54.8 percent said they would pay 10 percent more. 41.9 percent said they would pay 20 percent more. And 3.2 percent said they would pay 30% more.
54.5 percent of the respondents said they prefer to eat at the restaurants serving organic food more than restaurant that serve ordinary food while 45.5 percent said they don’t.
94.1 percent of the people who prefer ordinary restaurants simply said they don’t care while only 5.9 percent said the restaurants are too expensive.
From the findings, it is also clear that the majority of the respondents prefer organic and hydroponic vegetables more than ordinary and pesticide-free vegetables but they need more information about these different kinds of vegetables.
Organic vegetables and organic foods have great business potential but if you want to start such a business you have to be careful not to set the price too high.
Here are some interesting about organic vegetables;
http://www.squawkfox.com/2009/07/03/organic-food-cost/
http://www.truelemon.com/blog/the-10-most-pesticide-free-foods.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organic-food/NU00255
noelsutabutr 