even i can see the difference between bottled nutrients and sourcing stuff in bags from feed stores and making your own. the one is supporting the petrochemical industry as well as all the middle men, while the other is supporting local businesses for natural non processed products. the one is made in a chemical factory, the other is harvested by your local farmers. 1 is shipped and travels all over the world or at least half way across the country before you get it. the other is sourced inside a few mile radius of where it's used. so yeah slightly different even for an organics newb.
your talking from a limited perspective
not many of the feed stores here carry locally produced product (source > 100 miles) but still there remains plenty of safe organic products as well
some are raw (they even have raw organic components at the hydro shop like neem meal from neem source) and some are prepared for use (like kelpack) yet they are still premium organic components
the refinement process is where value can be added or quality can be undermined.
to make organic soil from raw self sufficient sustainable resources is ideal but we all vary from that model based on several factors which boil down to availability and cost
a persons time has a value too and the cost to source raw materials and make organics from a complete DIY endevor is not attractive to everyone because of opportunity cost (it is different for everyone) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost)
while ROLS is very attractive to some it is less attractive to others, some because of viability and I can cite many growers who use completely organic inputs to achieve a superior result.
this is where the chest beating based on cost losses its steam
is there something wrong with companies buy raw materials from farms, adding value in some manner and selling it as a agricultural product?
I have a question for you weird....... do you have a normal garden with tomatos, peppers, melons and things? if so how many of those are JUST indigenous to your local area? Some of them? all of them? or none of them?
only my foodstuff (none of which are invasive unlike say the dandelion) the rest of my yard is local flora only
the seed stock for food stuff was sourced from baker creek and a local organic farm
my land has been organic no till since before icmag was a twinkle in gypsy's eye as it was before me (a relative) the chairman of a very progressive organic farm which from which many publications were born.
if prohibition was not factor I would link some of what was being done in the 80s on that farm, the books that were authored by the main caretaker of the farm and what I witnessed first hand
but this isn't a thread about me
this is a thread titled why dont more people grow rols and bring value into the equation
I am arguing that the outputs that matter, not specific inputs and methods inputs, so for some people the value of ROLS is not the same as is it to you
value is the weakest part of ROLS value
the value has everything to do with giving a plant the optimal environment it evolved has evolved to perform withing
the value has everything to do with ecology and sustainability and economy of use
the value has everything to do with understanding the relationship between rhizosphere and soil and learning how to craft living soil from local sustainable raw components regardless of locale or resource
If personally I did not want to transition to blumats specifically I would be recycling and using exclusively EWC and teas.