market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market Farming
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- From: "Alderspring" <alderspring AT salmoninternet.com>
- To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Market-farming] re: good websites
- Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 13:02:39 -0700
Brigette Leach wrote:
Why is it that we find it necessary to criticize other products and
practices in order to promote ours? I can sell my product based on it's
freshness. I can sell based on the service that we go the extra mile to provide
to our customers. I have learned that pointing a finger at what others are doing
wrong is risky, and by my business standards, unfair. It just is not necessary
to put down any particular type of farming in order to promote your own! Sell by
what is "good" about your product. Frankly, having feed cattle for a number of
years on a family farm, I take offense at some of the information on your
website. The world has changed since 1989 (one bit of info cited)!
***
I welcome specific criticisms of the website, and
would be glad to change anything that is wrong. The bottom line, however,
is that what differentiates our beef is that they are raised by us
personally, that the animals eat only grass and hay, they are never in
a feedlot, and the are processed humanely and carefully by a small
processor by hand. The consumer will say "so what" unless they know how
most beef in the US is produced. I think produce may be different,
because freshness and locally produced alone does sell, but it won't sell our
beef. If you can think of another way to differentiate our beef, I'm all
ears.
We have been in the commercial cattle business for
about 15 years, and I grew up on a large commercial grain farm that my parents
still run. Because of what I know, I don't eat commercial beef. I do
not believe most of the farmers or ranchers who actually raise the product
deliberately try to do anything wrong. Most of them are operating in good
conscience, and most produce a safe product. Many are simply bound by
the economic realities of industrial agriculture (which means that in real
prices farmers receive less for their products today than they did 50 years
ago, and are forced to support the farm with off-farm employment).
The harm comes after the product leaves the farmgate. One of the
reasons we switched to direct marketing is that every year we would watch the
calves we had cared for for about 8 months the best way we could crowded into
trucks using hotshots and rods and driven (without food and water) to feedlots
in Nebraska where they were crowded in small pens to wallow in their own feces
and eat stuff that cattle don't naturally eat. There can be no way of
evaluating this except as WRONG. Wrong for the animals and wrong for the
people who eat them. Should we not tell anyone?
My cousin runs a couple confinement hog
houses. He is in subservience to the vertically integrated hog business
that he is a part of. He doesn't make much money, and bears most of the
risk. The hogs are confined in small spaces their entire lives. I
don't blame my cousin, but I think it is WRONG, not only for the animals, but
also for the people who eat them and the people who raise them who work for
peanuts (we don't eat pork either...). Should we ignore this and not
point it out to people who have no idea how their pork was raised?
We buy our honey locally. We asked him the
other day why his honey was so thick and the stuff we bought in the store
thin and pourable. He said it's because they water down the honey.
The main problem with this is that it dramatically reduces the
shelf-life of honey, and increases the risk of salmonella and
botulism. He's concerned about this, because most people do not use honey
rapidly in their home, but store it on their shelf for months and use it
occasionally. Once again, food purity and safety for the consumer
sacrificed to profit.
I could go on and on with examples I know from
personal experience. The bottom line is that agriculture in the US is
driven by price and profits, not quality or integrity. Our (meaning all of
us direct-marketers) "opting out" of the commercial system is essentially
an indictment of large-scale commercial agriculture.
A final comment. We had some information
about unethical business practices on the part of two competitors who sell in a
couple of the venues we serve. We never told anyone, and always treated
these competitors with a smile and good words. We felt in the local scene
it was not our job to try to expose these suppliers. Within a few months,
their lack of business integrity imploded on them and they crashed and
burned. In that way, I agree with Brigette that it is bad business and
wrong to try to run out local competitors. I have no problem, however,
describing systematic practices that are wrong within the cattle industry.
We don't do this direct marketing stuff for the money--given the amount of time
it takes we'd be better off financially if one of us took on more off-farm
employment and we continued to send our calves out on a truck! We do this
because it is right.
I'm still waiting for recommendations of some good
websites!
Caryl Elzinga
Alderspring Ranch Grass Fed Beef
|
-
[Market-farming] re: good websites,
Alderspring, 01/15/2005
- Re: [Market-farming] re: good websites, Tradingpost, 01/15/2005
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Market-farming] re: good websites, GreenMrkt, 01/15/2005
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