Why we buy organic - graph ''We far exceed all organic standards, except for raising our chicks from one or two days of age,'' Mr Steele said. ''It's a whole different business rearing chicks from one day. We would have to build another shed. It's a lot more labour-intensive. It requires a lot of attention.'' But the Steeles, who sell their eggs at a farmers' market and direct to Sydney restaurants and delicatessens, have also decided against paying large fees for the ''certified organic'' label. ''There's another disincentive … and that is that they charge you for the honour of being organic and using their logo,'' Mr Steele said. ''They charge you a percentage of your gross turnover and it makes it unviable for us. We would have liked to have gone organic, but we consider we are doing everything possible.'' Mrs Steele said customers were convinced by the quality of their eggs, not a label. ''More and more the 'organic' is going out of vogue,'' she said.

The Steeles are not alone. Anne Stuckey, from Berrima Ridge Farm on the south coast, has been growing vegetables for 40 years and since the 1990s has been farming olives and chickens. For much of that time she has farmed according to organic principles, but two years ago, when she was running between 1000 and 1500 hens, a critical mistake with the delivery of her feed nearly cost Ms Stuckey her organic status. ''In organics, if you feed your chicks for one day with non-organics to keep them alive, that's it - you're not allowed to use any of those eggs any more and say they're certified organic. It almost got to the point where I was going to ring NASAA [the certifier National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia] and pull out. Finally my husband ran to Nowra and bought every bag of organic feed.'' Recalling how close she came to losing her certification, Ms Stuckey said she was horrified to observe another farm, ''50 acres of black, bare dirt, not one tree, not one blade of grass and sheds'', that was certified. It was at that moment, three years ago, she decided to quit the certification program. Loading

''They changed all the rules to fit in with the modern guys. I started to realise that organics is by the rich, for the rich.'' Follow Life&Style on Twitter @Life_Style_News