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market-farming - Re: Marian Burro's NY Times article

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Subject: Market Farming

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "jay gee" <jgj23 AT mindspring.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Marian Burro's NY Times article
  • Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 13:11:38 +0000


Del Williams wrote:

> I don't get the opening paragraph... how did the organic industry triumph
> over bureaucracy?

The organic industry triumphed by changing the rules over their local
jurisdictions. It's much easier for a combine to harvest a field in
straight lines than by having a field cop at the end of each row
telling you to do something different.

The average organic farmer was not the organic industry. Calorganic
and the other large organic growers constituted the "industry" and as
the article said, they were interested in selling out to giants, or were
owned by giants.

A large farmer with strong retail brands might get five times earnings
for the product line, plus the value of the land, buildings and equipment
when selling to a public company. A small farmer is lucky to get the
value of the land and buildings when it is time to sell, let alone any
value for a product line when s/he sells to another farmer.

That is the true value of trademarks and marketing.


Jay Gee
not a farmer -- but interested in farming







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