Economic Performance of Organic Cropping Systems for Vegetables in the Northeast

This article provides an economic analysis comparing the profitability and land management capability of four different organic cropping systems designed for vegetable production in the Northeast. Integrated crop budgets were developed to document both receipts and production costs for each system. Using field-level data from trials between 2005 and 2009, we found that individual crops respond differently to the different systems, and that the high intensity system producing six cash crops generated the greatest economic returns. Subsequent sensitivity analyses were performed across a range of key parameters, and the results indicated that profitability was most impacted by yields and crop prices