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  • From: "Del Williams" <delannw AT dlogue.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: market-farming] Organic vs. ???
  • Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 18:47:16 -0500


Very interesting discussion and, for what it's worth, I am glad to see a
diversity of interests and practices on this list. Better that we have a
discussion than that no interaction occurs at all.

How do you fight the big cahunas? Well, if you're little you find a new
strategy.

Because a great number of consumers in the rest of the world have their own
preferences for what they want to eat, it would be useful to consider what
the proliferation of GMO's in the northern hemisphere has done for the
success of farmers. As if things aren't bad enough for north American
farmers - with Brazil, for example, fast becoming the world's #1 soybean
grower (and not interested in GMO's) - it is curious that north American
farmers aren't all that concerned about the competition. And so unconcerned
that they continue to use practices spurned by a great deal of the rest of
the agricultural world.

This reminds me of General Motors (and I grew up in Flint, Michigan - which
used to be Buick town). Personally, I love those old land barges we called
cars. I remember my ' 74 Malibu. What an engine. What speed. What a gas
guzzler. Drove it to 150,000 miles. Then it died.

But, certain car makers in the world got the idea that producing a car that
uses less fuel and that lasts longer might be interesting to consumers. And
so, today we have Toyotas, Mitsubishis, etc. I now own a Toyota Camry.
Excellent car. It is very unlikely to die at 150,000 miles and costs far
less to run (in 2001 dollars). The Camry was, last I looked, the best
selling car in the United States. It beat out the other best selling car
for years - the Ford Taurus - which had beat out the previous best-selling
car - the Buick Century.

Now you might think I'm making a case for GMO's. Inventing a new and
better - more desirable product. But I'm not. What Monsanto and their
genetic engineering counterparts have done is take the wrong turn that GM
did. They proceeded on a path for which there is not a world-wide market.

I predict that genetic engineering will be better applied to the development
of transplantable body parts than seed development. Those enterprising
individuals who continue to maintain non-GMO seed banks will reap the
profits in the long run. I have been to Farm Bureau and extension talks
where farmers are encouraged to look at organic production. It is growing
by leaps and bounds in the U. S. And let's not entirely disparage corporate
greed. Organically grown profits have turned the heads of rather large
companies. Geeze, even K-mart stocks certified organic canned goods (Muir
Glen) and certified organic lettuces (Dole).

This year, at our farmers market, our largest grower will be the only farm
seeking organic certification. The free-range chicken training day offered
by our USDA office (and my market manager - by the way) was attended by
participants as far away as Texas.

We can sit and despair or market our products. Funny thing. While I know
we will have organic growers who will advertise their produce as sustainably
grown and non-GMO, I doubt there will be any growers boasting about the use
of pesticides, herbicides or GMO seed. Could there be a reason for that?
Marketability, I think.

Del Williams
Farmer in the Del
Clifton IL





  • market-farming] Organic vs. ???, Del Williams, 04/24/2001

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