Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Denver Post Op-ed

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Fellenz <fellenz AT fltg.net>
  • To: jim_manning AT mindspring.com, Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Denver Post Op-ed
  • Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:29:07 -0400

Absolutely correct.  Why dairy hasn't embraced diversity is beyond me also.  Especially since if you go back two generations or so they had it.  Dairies advertised the benefits of Jersey or Guernsey milk, sold pastueurized and unpastuerized milk, homogenized and unhomogenized milk and looked for other ways to differentiate themselves.  Too many of the larger dairy farms seem to have the Henry Ford mentaility - 'you can have any color you want as long as it is black.' 

Andy





jim_manning AT mindspring.com wrote:

This whole discussion is so depressing. 

How hard is it for the dairy industry and policymakers to understand that large numbers of people have voted with their dollars for food that they perceive to be cleaner, safer, and better for the environment?   And how can they not see that this position is just going to grow, with a new scary food story showing up in the media every day?

From a purely mercenary perspective, you would think that the reaction to that would be to snuggle up to those people, find out what it will take to provide the products that meet their needs, and happily take their money.

Instead, the response from industry and policymakers is to batten down the hatches, declare that "milk is milk", and crank up the pr machine to undermine the credibility of any alternative labeling mechanism. 

In virtually every other aspect of modern marketing, industry understands that segmentation and differentiation lead to profit maximization.  In dairy, unbelievably, industry and policymakers fight fiercely to remain a commodity, with the accompanying low profitabilty.  

Jim




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page