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market-farming - Re: New terminology

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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: New terminology
  • Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 15:23:16 +0000


Liz Pike wrote:

> > Don't be surprised that big-ag gets together and gets a national law
> > passed defining the
> > use of the term "locally grown" for marketing purposes and that local
> > means anywhere
> > in the U.S.A. ;-)
>
> just when I thought we'd figured it all out...thanks alot Jay Gee ; ))

Sorry Liz!

I just call 'em as I see 'em.

Since organic and local are where the growth is,
no pun intended, ag-biz has to co-opt these
angles for the benefit of their nameless
shareholders and to cover the asses of the execs
charged with running these companies.

Unless farmers learn to adopt the marketing
methodologies of the giants, every new niche
that is opened will be closed by a giant rushing
in to capitalize on it.

That is why marketing co-ops exist. If you are
going to build a niche, why not be able to protect
it. Then, if some giant comes along and wants
to enter, they must play by the established rules,
not rewrite the rule book by way of their lobbyists.

I strongly suspect that the cost of getting the
trademarks, and putting a legal n.p. coop together
for an improvement over "organic" is less than
$10,000 total, including a web site to accept
applications from new members and accept
application funds and donations.

The difficult part is going through the politics
among yourselves of what standards to hold
the users of a new mark to.

Considering how much agreement there is
on this list, it is not surprising that big-ag makes
every new punch count, leaving small farmers
who thought they had a niche, dazed and
confused about what to do next.

Keeping them from organizing is a great way
to beat your competition and it is just what
big-ag is doing to small farmers at this time.

Jay Gee
not a farmer -- but interested in farming







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