North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["loneroc" <loneroc@mwt.net>]

mIEKAL and Tom:

What you describe is exactly my point.  Price supports for small farmers, in
the case of Ontario, and the "Organic" label, which either via government or
private certification protects certain "inefficiencies" that would not allow
Organic Valley to use organic/more sustainable methods and compete with
conventional agriculture for the trade of the masses. Most consumers, as it
stands would not be willing to double their food bills for a healthier
agriculture any more than gas hogging, SUV driving idiots are willing to
forgo their "pleasure" for the sake of the planet.  Sometimes a bit of
government persuasion/ direction/ coercion is necessary so the selfishness
of the few doesn't destroy us all.  The very least that government can do is
to prevent producers from externalizing costs--having all of society pay
indirectly to subsidize a business' own waste/greed etc. or to prevent the
other side of the equation, certain consumers, tfrom paying a price (cheap
gas, for example) that doesn't take into account pollution, CO2 production,
health care costs associated with these, wars to protect the oil supply and
on and on.  (I did support the use of force to topple that monster Hussein,
but that's for another forum.)

That's why I buy organic.  In effect I have chosen to pay a premium of 50 to
100% to support non-industrial agriculture.  Unfortunately, organic is what?
2% of the US food market?  You are not going to capture the Junkfood Nation
that makes up the vast majority of US consumers as long as Uncle Sam
structures the "market" to line the pockets of the big guys.  The food
corporations continue to brainwash us from the cradle to the grave to buy
their garbage.  If anyone thinks that advertising isn't driving current
obesity increases, then you have to assume that megafood processor just
throw their money down an advertising rathole for the fun of oit.

Lone Rock
----- Original Message -----
From: "mIEKAL aND" <dtv@mwt.net>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Thriving Small Farms


> The amount of hogwash circulating in this thread is really
> uncharacteristic of the NAFEX list.  I work for Organic Valley, a
> national farmers coop centered in WISC but with farmer members in 17
> states.  We have 650 "small farms" in our coop alone, from about 40
> acres to a thousand acres or so.  The majority of our farmers are dairy
> farmers who are receiving almost double the pay price of conventional
> dairy. We have a waiting list of 3 years for farmers waiting to get on
> the truck, sold $150 million in product this year.  We also have a lot
> of meat & vegetable producers as well.  The board of directors has had
> to slow down growth for several years in a row because it was decided
> growth about $25% a year was not sustainable.  We have also become a
> model for other producer coops around the US & abroad.
>
>
> mIEKAL
>
>
> On Tuesday, December 23, 2003, at 08:49 AM, Jim F wrote:
>
> > The talk of small farms dying out is not necessarily true unless
> > we speak of 'what type' of small farms are dying. There are alot of
> > thriving farms but they are different from what many think of as a
> > "farm."
> > The small family farms that are going extinct are those that
> > produce milk or raise grain. Those folks who are creative enough to
> > enter alternative agriculture often do quite well and we do not need
> > vast tracts of land to do it - by "vast", I mean anything over ten
> > acres. One of the most successful small farms that I am familiar with
> > grosses up to $200,000 per year.......................on just ONE
> > acre. I'm speaking of the well known(?) Kona Kai farm near Oakland,
> > California and all they raise is mesclun (specialty lettuces) and
> > edible flowers.
> > The Kona Kai has an advantage that we, in Minnesota, do not
> > have. They can produce crops the whole year around. My wife and I do
> > not have that advantage, however, we do manage to earn a decent living
> > on 1.4 acres - we are a fruit and berry farm and we direct market our
> > produce raising peaches, apples, plums, a good variety of berries and
> > specialty mushrooms. Besides fresh fruit, we also sell jams, jellies
> > and syrups, including maple syrup. For the maple operation, we own
> > the processing plant and tap other people's trees and others tap their
> > trees bringing us the sap to process.
> > That's us. I know of others who farm just a few acres raising
> > vegetables to sell at farmers' markets plus a host of others who raise
> > herbs, some do cullinary, others raising medicinal. I could write a
> > full paragraph about other small family farms that I know of and none
> > of them, zero, raise grain or produce milk. The family farm is alive
> > and well here in America.
> >
> > Jim Fruth
> > Pequot Lakes, MN
>
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