Studio interview at Baden TV

Sustainable foods are expensive - that is the subjective opinion of the consumers. The question if this impression is correct or completely wrong is examined by Dr. Christian Haubach and Benjamin Held. The scientists at the University of Pforzheim work in a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), that converts the average basket of the consumer to sustainable products andanalyzes its costs by means of empirical data.

The gut feeling sends clear signals: The grasp at ecological products is more noticeable in the purse of the consumer. This widespread opinion is reviewed by the project "basket-based price and environmental comparison of organic and conventional consumption" (WaPrUmKo). Behind the somewhat unwieldy title stands an extensive analysis that works with clear comprehensible criteria. "We are concerned about the verifiability and objective data," explains Dr. Haubach. "The basis of the investigation is the basket of goods in order to calculate the consumer price index",  says the scientists from the Institute of Industrial Ecology (INEC) at Pforzheim University. The basket of private households, monthly collected by the Federal Statistical Office, contains representative products and differentiates according to individual product groups. By this basket the price index and the expected inflation rate is determined.

Within the research project conventional foods and beverages of the basket were replaced by biological, sustainable products and thus  the costs of a fictitious complete adjustment are determined. "The gut feeling is quite correct," Christian Haubach notes. On average, organic foods are 70 percent more expensive than conventional, "as long as they are simply replaced blindly." These price increases will of course vary within the individual product groups. Fish will be more than twice as expensive, for dairy products the consumer would have to pay a relatively modest increase of 46 percent, while meat eaters would pay 87 percent more.

"The numbers must of course be put in relation," says Christian Haubach. For  Germans expenditure on food does not come first. Only about 10 percent of the average monthly costs are used for food. "This is by world standards very little," said the scientist. A consumer who switches to organic products will hardly retain its other consumer behavior. "We wanted objectivity; therefore we have converted the basket of goods one-to-one and no changes in eating habits - for example, less meat products - involved." The transition to an all in all more ecological consumption style, in which the volume of expenditure for individual products and product categories is changed, can indeed be associated with much lower costs or even savings. Similar studies should follow in a subsequent project.

The first results of the research project that begun in 2012 will be published in the coming months. In addition to the INEC at Pforzheim University and the Research Institute of the Evangelical Studies Community eV (FEST), the Federal Statistical Office, the bioVista GmbH and the IFC Europe Group / mynetfair AG are involved in the WaPrUmKo-project. The three-year project is expected to be completed by the end August 2015.