>>2253684The organic certification itself is what gains extra money on the market but that usually applies to larger scale growers who are selling wholesale.
If you sell at small scale farmer's markets or farm gate sales, you can farm using good methods like permaculture or organic etc and then you can set your price for it. If the food you grow is good, you can get a good price for it. I wouldn't recommend supplementing with non-certified conventional fertilizers, rather adjusting to soil biology ratios and amounts to deliver proper nutrients to the plants. The "scam" part of the certification is the fees and (quite impossible) regulations that need to be followed to attain the cert.
If you're a super large farm that grows thousands of pounds of apples and conventionally you make 13 cents per pound vs. organic certified at 60 cents, you might consider transitioning and applying for the certification, faking your manure watering schedule, hiding the dogs, pretending like you don't touch the rungs of the ladder etc.
