A must read for farmers

[gustgd]

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/the-omnivore2019s-delusion-against-the-agri-intellectuals

[gustgd]

sorry can't figure out how to hot link could some one do it for me?

[wd9]

[URL="http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/the-omnivore2019s-delusion-against-the-agri-intellectuals"]http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/the-omnivore2019s-delusion-against-the-agri-intellectuals [/URL]

[gustgd]

Thanks wd9
While I don't agree with everything the authour has to say. I would think he's 90% there.

[charliep]

Good article.

Here is a site I found useful in my struggles to do embedded links.

[URL="http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/linking/_A.html"]hmtl[/URL]

[parsley]

Blake Hurst writes:

"The distance between the farmer and what he grows has certainly increased"

Maybe so for conventional agriculture, but organics built an entire brand new industry by partnering with buyers. And with consumers.

It wasn't at all that organics ran down Conventional or tried to alienate Conventionals. It is about servicing a market that the Conventionals abandoned. About serving buyers that cannot find what they are want to buy!

About earning the respect and trust of the buyer. About building a relationship with a buyer.

Fifteen years ago, our local co-op openly told me they would sooner buy vegetables from California and have them shipped in weekly, and they did, than purchase locally grown vegetables, which the consumers preferred.

The two systems just viewd the consumer differently. Still do.

But I do note that "Buy local" is no longer a concept of the Stupid.

<p></p>
<p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong><a href="http://parsleysnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/09/buying-food-at-local-market.html">(The local market)</a></strong></p>

[charliep]

Perhaps another view and a question how it will impact farmers. Walmart doesn't
mention farms directly but you can ask yourself what would happen if they applied the
principals to their food purchasing.

<a href="http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/9277.aspx">walmart</a>

[parsley]

I had to smile when you mentioned walmart, charliep.

At the same time I spoke to the local co-op, I also called Walmart in Regina. They immediatley and pleasnatly gave me names and numbers to call. They were very receptive to "local". They needed large amounts though, and at that time, organics did not have as many growers.

Farmers have every opportunity to tune in to the people who sell the products as well as the people who end up eating the product.

It won't be long before a company or country who adds toxins like melamine to food will be on the banned list for all to see.

Farmers must be prepared to adapt to change. One farmer will continue sitting in an airplane arguing with a consumer, and the other farmer will listen to the consumer, take notes, and double sales. Pars

[dalek]

Not sure if I mentioned this elsewhere but an old friend of mine is grocery manager at a new Super WalMart. Turns out that since Wal Mart doesn't have it's own grocery distribution system in Canada, it has nothing to gain from requiring it's stores to buy their groceries from head office, unlike all of the other grocery chains where there is actually little opportunity to buy locally.

He was told flat out that as long as he had the items that appeared in the flyers on the shelves in sufficient quantities, he was free to fill every other space in the store with locally produced food if he could make the numbers work for sales and keep the consumers happy.

He talks to people from other chains fairly often, they're incredibly jealous when they find out this and they're only allowed to buy 5% (often much less) from outside the chain warehouse distribution system.

I've already given him several contacts.

[LWeber]

Dale:
Can you contact me via email

larry@webercommodities.com

[charliep]

Parsley

You give me the opportunity to plug one of our publications. The people I work with spend
more time on the consumer needs/wants than on the commodity side (I plus one a livestock
type are the odd duck in our group looking at commodities).

[URL="http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sis12786"][/URL]

One of my most fun adventures is a trip to grocery store (Superstore this afternoon). What
amazes me is the variety of people and food - an interesting opportunity for anyone in the
food supply chain.

[parsley]

Food is the future of wealth. And there are some people with heavy purses looking closley at food.

What is so amazing, is the QUALITY of food we have in Saskatchewan, and the rest of the West.

We're sitting on a bloody goldmine that the rest of the world wants, and we're so stupid, we don't even know it.

We rented an apartment from an opera singer, in Manahatten for almost a month and explored food in NYC.

Chomp. chew. Eat.LOL