More Followup From Monday's Post...

Okay, here is the second part of my thoughts on Monday's blog post. I think some good discussion has come out of this and it truly makes me thankful for all the help I receive from the readers of this blog. Today's part includes some of the things that popped into my head after reading through those great and well thought out comments and a couple of closing thoughts.

• "I feel that America in a whole has fallen into the trap that everything must be convenient and everything priced that way. I feel that is what has gotten us here, lets let govt control our foods, subsidize them, and keep everything on a level playing field. I feel that if uneducated consumers, would take the time to go and visit their local farm, maybe even work for a bit with them, that they would quickly see and be more than willing to pay the premium price for their premium foods." This quote comes from Kramer and I think he is totally right! The things he said about the government and how we got to where we are have been stated on this blog by myself and other commenters ten times over. But, how do we get Joe Blow to come to the farm and educate themselves? I think that may be one of the most serious questions a direct marketing farmer has to answer. It is easy to get the people to the farm that have already figured it out, but how do you get the guy who grew up on a conventional farm (and then left it) in the middle of an Iowa cornfield to come out to your farm and see why they should be willing to pay more? Of course like a total loser I'm not offering up any answers ... just posing the question, but I will say that it is a similar question to the one that I seek to answer everyday at my job (youth pastor).
• "...it gets frustrating when you hear that your premium cared for products should be priced closer to factory farmed products." Again from Kramer (not picking on him ... he just had a lot of good stuff to say). I hope that I didn't come across with that type of viewpoint, because I wholeheartedly agree you should receive what you deserve for your work. Also, I just wanted to throw out how I have been surprisingly encouraged by the responses I have had from within my own community and from readers (and the staff) of Epicurious. Of course it is frustrating, and I'm sure it happens in every line of work (sometimes it feels like I'm paying these contractors too much ... but then I realize how much better they are at their job than I would be), but this is where education comes in again. As you can tell education keeps popping up ... more on that later.
• "If your customers are drawn to your product because of the combination of quality, uniqueness, and a "decent" price (but not cheap), they will be more likely to pay more and less likely to seek a cheaper alternative (as long as the price doesn't become outlandish)." I love this summary from Rich because I think he nailed what I would like to say on the head. It has to be a combination of all of those things (and education) in order to remain sustainable in every sense of the word.

Now for a couple of last thoughts...

• If you read Joel Salatin (and a few others) you get the idea that if our agricultural system trended more towards what it was in the past (grass-based and local farms) that we would be better off. Is that true or will we always need large agri-businesses that ship their products all over the country? Is it true that we will need a system that is based on growing in one place and finishing in another and then processing in yet another? Just some questions...
• Also, the word "education" popped up a lot in my ramblings today (and that is really what they are) and in the comments yesterday. How do we go about educating people of the different choices that are out there? And I think more importantly how to handle their money. Because if these articles and blog posts are to be believed and people aren't buying organic/natural because they are running out of money then the problem is fundamentally that we are bad with money as a nation (yeah, yeah, I know ... no news flash there). Being a good steward of your money is something my wife and I are ultra-passionate about because if we weren't there is no way we would be building a house on 40 acres ... just wouldn't be possible with a youth pastors salary and a stay-at-home mom. It is possible with stewardship. Remember, you always have money for what you want to have money for ... now we just need to help people realize they need to spend money on healthy food.

**Just in case you were wondering I chose these pictures of people talking over the fence because I like that image of the conversation on the blog ... and in this picture I want to be the guy holding his pipe down from his mouth because I like his hat :)