I've been thinking a lot about organics recently, it seems to be back on the agenda with rising affluence (supposedly) and people keener than ever to know the journey their food has been on.

I've always found the organic zealots difficult to digest, it's one of the reasons why I would be so sceptical of organics. The whole “it’s a lifestyle” thing doesn’t wash very well with me or my friends in the banking sector.

The famous Watergate hearing quote “don’t confuse me with the facts” always comes to mind, but not because organic food is better or worse than conventional, but because the fact is the figures just don’t stack for more than a small number of organic producers.

The reason organics struggle is because deep down, regardless of the idealist waffle, people won't pay the farmer a fair margin to leave the spreader and sprayer in the shed.

I know of one very good organic grower in the middle of the country and it has to be said his quality is amongst the best in the country regardless of organic or conventional, but I’m not sure there is room for many more with him as the market is as yet underdeveloped.

I'm often asked where I stand on the organic versus conventional debate but in real terms it's a null point. The reason I get out of bed in the morning is to make money from farming in whatever way I can with the cards I've been played. If people pay more for organic to cover the increased production cost I would gladly put the sprayer on the market and buy a lovely laser guided inter row crop hoe.

This all circles back to what I feel is a bigger challenge for us as farmers, the rhetoric we hear from the consumer and government is not in line with their spending behaviour when it comes to paying farmers for the food we produce.

Everybody is keen to tell us how we should do it, but nobody wants to pay us to do it.

At the end of the day, people’s ideals are one thing but when it comes to putting their hand in their pocket at the till these strong beliefs often desert them before they haul their shopping out to their 3 litre petrol Range Rover.

Read more: Coveney: EU organic farming proposals are "too ambitious"