So it is not at all immediately obvious to me why a customer would have to
be local (within 30 miles) in order to ~know~ me? If I consider my
personal friends and family members ... took a sample of people who know me
best (by almost any standard you want to use) -- more of those people would
come from outside a 30 mile radius than inside that 30 mile radius. That
might be different for some other folks, but I'm willing to bet that would
be true for most others ... particularly for professionals or people with
careers.
I understand the sentimental appeal of the eco-groovy LOCAL GARDEN utopian
vision, because I tried marketing to local customers for more than 10 years
before I finally "wised up" ... and I'm still poor enough to prove that I
was every bit as much the hard-headed "local produce" ideologue as anyone
else. I recognize that there are regions of the country where 30 miles is
sufficient to provide an appreciative, affluent market base which can
provide reasonable employment to a local grower. But I do not live in one
of those regions. Even if I did, I am not so sure that I would so quick to
dismiss the notion of specialization or global markets. My guess is that
"ideological flexibility" (particularly in terms of tolerance of different
points of view, alternative paradigms) would offer a higher probability of
survival.
For those of us in areas with farmland everywhere we look and a high
population of family farmers, specialization is absolutely necessary in
order to achieve mastery and to be able to continuously and consistently
improve. You simply cannot get good enough at anything to know enough
about it to improve if you are doing ten or twenty or fifty different
things ... and that is exactly what you're doing if you're the
horticulturist, soil scientist, geneticist, grower, mechanic, marketer,
manager, accountant, engineer, child-care provider, gofer for a business
that produces twenty different products.
Of course, financial / microeconomic diversification is absolutely
necessary -- I'd highly recommend off-farm employment for at least one
member of [sustainable ag] farm families (especially if telecommuting is an
option) and joining/forming a LOCAL investment club ("club" as in ~group of
friends whose company you enjoy enough to tolerate even when their stock
selections stink~) in order to carefully, diligently study, discuss,
understand, and invest in superior organizations. I belong to one of
these clubs and I've learned a lot about my fellow club members ~~ about
how each one of them assesses information and makes decisions, about how we
all are able quickly reach consensus on thorny issues or how we are able
learn from one another ~~ and we've even learned a little bit about how
excellent, responsible companies prosper and grow. We've also learned why
all of the best companies are increasingly engaged in global commerce and
trade in some way or another ~~ worldwide, it's the same story, customers
want to buy the very best value at the lowest cost.
At 11:50 PM 5/15/98 -0400, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
>http://sunSITE.unc.edu/london InterGarden
>london@sunSITE.unc.edu llondon@bellsouth.net
>
>On Wed, 13 May 1998, Wilson, Dale wrote:
>
>> Don't you think it is a little unreasonable to expect consumers to know
>> the grower and their operation personally? What you are really saying
>> is that you are willing, as a producer, to accept a tiny, purely local
>> market. Probably, many organic farmers don't feel that way.
>
>Who ever said local markets are "tiny"? Why would any small
>(microfarmer/market gardener - 5 acres +/-) want to/have to resort to
>shipping out his produce more than 30 miles away (that might be
>considered a reasonable maximum distance for delivery of produce,in a
>3-5/day/week schedule). If you grew speciality crops that might be
>different. The benefits to farmers and the communities they live near
>are tremendous with a local direct marketing system. The cooperation
>possible between growers and consumers is boundless. The benefits
>to the counties they live in and areas they market to are great;
>working farms make money for the county; they demand less from the county
>for each tax dollar paid. Small farms and family farms that are
>economically secure from local direct sales set a good example for
>local governments, encouraging them to design and implement farmland
>and open space preservation plans. Encouraging small and family farms to
>diversify and engage in production for local sales keeps them on their
>farms, makes money for the counties thay live in, gives consumers access
>to products of exceptional quality priced fairly and helps keep good
>or prime farmland away from development forces.
>
>Lets hear it for growers committed to LOCAL DIRECT SALES!
>Lets hear it also for saving farmland, small farming and family farms!
>
>I will soon start a new mailing list (also accessable via your news
>readers and web browser [a Lyris mailing list for those interested]
>for these growers called new-local-grower; posting ID when I have it
>set up will be new-local-grower@franklin.oit.unc.edu.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Lawrence
>
>a local grower using natural farming methods in Chapel Hill, NC
>
>
>
>
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