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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Cell phones and things related

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Jay Gee <jaygee AT jghelp.com>, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Cell phones and things related
  • Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:14:22 -0400

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:27:18 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:

>On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:11:59 -0400, Pat Meadows wrote:
>
>> Certainly, one aspect of the problem with Wal-Mart (as I see
>> it) is the death of small towns, and the contributions
>> Wal-Mart has made and is making to those deaths.
>
>Small towns generally die because the children who
>grow up there learn about big cities on TV and leave.
>Without people there is no market for any small retailer.
>
>There isn't room enough in the rural U.S. for everyone
>to be farmers without driving the prices of farm products
>to levels even less profitable than now for many.

This is a straw man. I never said all rural Americans
should be farmers - it's totally irrelevant.

>Farmers have over the years engaged in many of the same
>"illegal" practices that Wal-Mart is accused of these days.
>How many farmers do you know who offer migrant or part
>time labor health insurance benefits?

Two wrongs don't make a right, as we all know. Anyway, I
know it. I think most people do.


>English and European small towns are under pressure from many
>of the same forces that U.S. small towns were. TV spread more
>slowly in those areas after WWII. As upward mobility becomes
>more widespread in Europe, expect small towns to dry up and
>blow away at a greater rate than in the past.
>
>At least that's my take on the situation...
>

If you're right, it's really a shame and especially so from
the point of view of market farmers, I think.

For instance, the person who is selling his peppers at $1/lb
to Wal-Mart could perhaps be getting $2/lb for them at a
farmers market as he would be selling them directly to the
consumer. If Walt-Mart is paying $1/lb for them, it's not
selling them for $1/lb - it's selling them for more and
making a profit.

Farmers markets alone probably aren't sufficient to draw
people into a town to buy their vegetables and fruit, but if
the town is a living vibrant town, the people are going to
be there anyway, and may well buy their fresh produce from a
farmers market.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry




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