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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] marketing
  • Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:22:51 -0500


I'm not attempting to offer a satisfactory explanation of it, but it seems in
my experience that the lightest and most effortless thing eaten directly on
the farm takes on leaden shoes when it walks past our gate.

Specialty produce operations need solid funding, motivated and very hard working people, and an educated, sophisticated nearby market. That market must be consistent. The produce grower must be consistent. Both are very hard to accomplish. The mega-competition has perfected the process over many decades and consumers have become conditioned to the convenience of walking into a store and finding just what they want. And, yes, most of the time they just pay whatever the price is or make some substitution.

In Forbes Magazine, April 24, 2006, in an article titled "Shelf Life" that relates the new technological tricks to keep food "fresh" for astounding periods of time (deli meat for 120 days), there is this:
"Of the 460 billion spent in supermarkets each year, only a sliver goes to farmers. The farmer's share of a loaf of bread is 5% of the retail price and 7% of the price of a can of tomatoes. The rest is eaten up by processing, packaging, shipping, advertising and retailing.As packaging gets more exotic, the downstream costs will probably capture an even larger share of the pie."

I, too, have attempted the farmer's market enterprise. Today I would far sooner compost my excess garden products.






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