Global starvation imminent ?

[cottonpicken]

Better educated?Please.

Next you'll tell me vegetarions are "just smarter than the rest of us".

[checking]

Do you have a statistic that says how much so called organic product is sold off supermarket shelves versus the pick up experience at organic farms. Would you ever question the big box method?

[bduke]

Parsley.... I agree that the more affluent and better
educated consumers tend to be the "organic"
market.

My concern is whether this market is large enough,
and will remain affluent enough to continue
growing at its past rate.

I don't foresee the developing middle classes in
China and India paying an organic premium.

However, the upper income earners in North
America, Europe, and the UK are not overburdened
by the cost of food!

Still, consumers can be fickle. If the unwinding of
the quantitative easing doesn't go reasonably well
we will have high inflation, and higher taxation, in
the aforementioned countries.

While I do care greatly what i "put in my mouth", I
can not ignore the anecdotal evidence of the size
and strength of our youth from all sectors of our
societies.

My interest in organics is acknowledging that the
customer is always right.

My concern is that the customer can be fickle.

Believe me, I would like to farm without the
chemical reps, the ferilizer sellers, the CWB, etc.
and their multitudes of vehicles, advertising, sale
forces, political influences and lifestyles that tend
to reduce the prices of grains.

The Grocery Manufacturers are another story!!

Basically, I am wondering how thin the organic
market is, especially for those without developed
relationships...... Bill

[parsley]

cott,

I can relate the profile of those who faithfully visted our farm, and they were, generally speaking, the mid thirties to late forties crowd, well educated, well travelled, and with lot of disposible income.

It surprised me.

I expected a stream of blue haired shoppers, but instead I got the university yuppies, wanting recipes to go with their Ireland Creek Annie bean purchase, or cooking instructions to go with their black garbonzo beans.

Keely interested shoppers! Sending emails, and phoning.

The clientele were could be described as carefull planners, including their eating habits,their nutritional needs. The majority had young children, hence we had gum trees.

We certainly sold to a few of the people recuperating, or trying to moderate their condition, for example, diabetics, or high cholesterol, or cancer, but the bulk, by far, was young couples with young children.

With money. And very well educated.

Rather surprising, isn't it?

It was for me.

And rarely a farmer came as a customer.

In fact, the few who did come would ask, "Who eats all these lentils? I don't."

Quite a learning experience for me.

[parsley]

The eye opener for me, checking, was really nosing out the stores in Eastern USA. We spent almost a month in NYC.

In Connecticut, there are huge, huge stores,a lot of them with organic product, natural product, or the farm's name listed on the label,stating, "If you want to ask Checking Farms Lt. a question about this product, call us at 881-881-8811".

Companies sending food to China to be processed, may find they lose sales over the long haul for that reason.

Stores who don't have someone to call for crucial information when the product on their shelves causes three deaths overnight, will quickly find different products to sell.

It's really about accountability, isn't it? It's not about size, is it?

[parsley]

bduke,

Thin?

My comment would be that most farmers want to grow food and dump it first chance if the price is decent.

Some farmers want to grow it and follow it through down the chain to various stages including end user. Hands on marketers, I'll call them.

There is a need for both.

A lot of farmers hate dealing with the public. Good grief, some farmers on AV berate every company and the people who work in the company, every chance they get. It's a poor working relationship and to expand it to include the consumer would spell disaster for all.

Paying attention to detail will always realize more money in the pocket.

The organic market, as we knew it, though, has mutated as more and more financially crippled farmers latch on, applying only the failed experiences they have learned at the conventional field, to organics, which inevitably results in repeated failure.

I believe the farmers who want to truly service a specific buyer, will liase, and co-ordinate their shipments, and refine their agronomic methods to suit the buyer.

The main thing is farmers must have the opportunity to choose your business partners AND be able to work amiably with the partners you choose to work with. Otherwise, it's a long hard life working with those you have to battle with for every sale made.

Organics as we now know it, may quietly become a revitalized group of people with a new name, energized by commerce and co-operation, working to service a specific market, but leaving behind, the regulatory feuding and the political positioning to the squabbling failures who have recently and often claimed it as their no-name political party.

But there is definitely a solid lucrative vibrant market for selling good food. Healthy food. Interesting food. Exciting food. Makes me drool. lol

After all, we love to eat, don't we? And if farmers love to grow, it's rather like selling diamonds; it's an enthusiastic match made in heaven. pars

[charliep]

Work we have done in the area I work in at ARD would tend to confirm Parsley finding. Its a different attitude but the mind set has to be marketing to a customer based on their needs/perception versus selling a commodity to a big market.

The other really big trend (and somewhat growing in Canada) is buying local. The 100 mile diet is the extreme but even buying provincially or Canadian. Observation is the consumer will change behavior in difficult financial times but some of the basic values/requirements around food will not change. It may mean they eat out less or change the type of restraunt they eat at.

[parsley]

charliep,

A wage earner making $80K yearly isn't injured severely if his food bill is raised from four thousand to forty two hundred a year.

But to the farmer, the additional income that results is HUGE. ie. To go from $5.00 wheat to $8.00 wheat is the difference between the next generation farming or not.

[checking]

In our father's, or our grandfather's farming time (depending on our present age), most of them will readily admit that the yellow flowered fields of the past had them beat. 2-4D arrived just in time for them to again grow decent cereal crops. Our organic grain farming neighbours of today openly lament that they wish their status would not be removed if they could just use four ounces of 2-4D. What does your research say about the danger of 2-4D on the organic public, or is it really always all about perception of what constitutes healthy food?

[parsley]

I was told by a scientist that simp;y spraying liquid sugar on a crop will kill the bugs. They cannot digest mere sugar and they die.

I think there are probably various ways to cope with insects and weeds if we are smart enuff to open our eyes to other ways instead of automattically spraying although I'm the first to admit learning something new is annoying at times as well as time consuming.

In answer to your question. Both.

Organics' buyers have been very clear about what they want, and they put their money where their mouth is so who am I to tell them what color to paint their house?

Research shows....would you believe anything you want it to say? Pay the man his money and your words will come out of his mouth.

Such is the state of today's learned science.

It lacks morals. IMHO.

Look at the world around you. Put your finger on the pulse of the top ills in your community and family. Make your own diagnosis, if you are not accustomed to lying to yourself, that is.

Chances are we will all come up with the same top three or so.

And then ask yourself , as a farmer, are you, or is there a chance you could be, either causing or adding to the ill you have identified?

At least, it's a sound beginning.

[bduke]

Parsley... I think my top three are:

1) Stress

2) Cigarettes

3) Saturated fats

The next three:

4) Lack of exercise

5) Accidents

6) Mexican holidays

Bill

[Hopperbin]

Parsley? What do you produce and sell?

[sumdumguy]

My husband and I have visited Parsley's farm, etc. and we will not forget the experience. Parsley and her husband have awesome imaginations and have coupled their ideas with tireless innovation and hard-hard work. They have scaled their way up the value-chain with poise. Wow- Parsley-you've got jam ! And, Parsley shares. And Parsley still has time for Agri-Ville.

[checking]

Good list of bad ills Bill. Top three - genetics - like relatives, they can't be picked, but I'll let companies like Monsanto work on that. Second - prevailing winds - I think the fall out patterns of the above ground tests of post WW11 have much to do with SE Sask health. Third - relates to your mentioned stress - it could be nearly eliminated if outside interference would leave us alone, all the way from meddling government agencies to ........

[checking]

Oh! Sumdumguy, what venture exchange are the shares listed under. (lol)