why is "organic" more expensive?

Why, really, is organic food more expensive? It seems that high processed food, with added chemicals, processes to put those chemicals into food, would be a costlier process than not doing all that stuff and letting food grow at a normal speed on its own. I don't know the technical rules for "organic" crop raising as set out by the USDA, but I would imagine that technological uses such as machines and even some herbicides and pesticides are allowed, as long as they comply. And so the process out in the field of raising the food seems more or less the same costs. As well as the transportation costs of getting it to the store. 1 pound of organic tomatoes seems like it would be the same cost to ship as 1 pound of not-organic tomatoes. But maybe not. I know nothing about farming and admit that. So more or less, to me it makes logical sense, in our technologically advanced day and age, that the inputs to produce organic food and conventional food are much the same.

Most likely, quantity supplied is not meeting demand for organic food as well as it is for conventional food, and so prices are higher. But is demand for organic foods that much greater than the amount supplied? Part of it, I'm thinking that organic food is conventionally more expensive because of food companies' marketing departments who have really helped to raise the level of demand. They've added enough hype and scientific studies or word of mouth buzz to merit a raise in price. Organic crop acreage has been rising substantially over the past 7 years, and so maybe supply will catch up to the demand for organic foods, and organic foods will come down in price. But maybe not. If more people continue to desire organic food, and there aren't leaps in supply, then the general higher prices for organic food will stick around.

Has anyone ever noticed that the produce at local farmers' markets tends to be cheaper than even mass cultivated "conventional" food sold in the supermarket? And has anybody thought this is all backwards? We call food that is special "organic" because it is cultivated more according to how nature intended it to be. And people pay a higher price for something that is more natural. Huh?