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Wednesday, August 23
Why 'the market' alone can't save local agriculture
by
Caroline Vernon
on Wed 23 Aug 2006 09:33 PM CDT
 Why 'the market' alone can't save local agriculture
By Tom Philpott
Grist Magazine, August 2006
www.organicconsumers.org
Straight to the Source - The local-food movement has reached an interesting juncture.Through one lens, things are looking better than ever. According to a USDA report (PDF), the number of farmers' markets leapt 79 percent to 3,100 between 1994 and 2002. Community-supported agriculture programs -- wherein consumers buy a share of a farm's output before the season starts, sharing the risks and rewards of the harvest -- have followed a similar trajectory. According to one source, North America boasts 1,200 CSAs. Just 25 years ago, the concept didn't exist in these parts.
All that growth aside, though, the overall market for local produce remains tiny. The USDA reckons that farmers' markets account for less than 2 percent of the more than $70 billion Americans spend on produce. And, as I've pointed out before, the overall income picture for small commercial farms is dismal. Key USDA stat: Farms with annual revenues between $10,000 and $99,000 -- which describes the vast majority of farmers' market vendors -- have an average operating profit margin of negative 24.5 percent.
Simply put, small farms lose money, and their losses are financed by the off-farm incomes of the families that run them. From this angle, so-called sustainable farming looks like a precarious enterprise.
Why, then, do farmers' markets and CSAs continue to grow and multiply? Why do people still farm? The local-food revival, it seems to me, runs on passion: people's desire for connection to the seasons, to the soil that feeds them, to powerful flavors that can't be manufactured with chemicals or preserved over 1,300-mile delivery hauls. Aside from the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, I can think of no great boom in American history built more on enthusiasm, and less on profit.
Yet passion has practical limits (as investors in, say, Pets.com learned in 2000). For local farms to supply significantly more than 2 percent of the nation's produce (or meat, dairy, and eggs, for that matter), small-scale farming will have to become an economically viable activity.
Some optimists argue that market forces are already quietly working to achieve that goal. The argument goes like this: surging consumer demand for local food -- coupled with rising energy costs -- has convinced the large supermarket companies to rethink their far-flung supply chains and seek out small-scale producers near individual retail outlets. These corporate buyers will pump cash into local farm economies across the nation, reviving the fortunes of small-scale farmers.
Certainly, evidence for this scenario abounds. The phrase "local is the new organic" has become commonplace. Having turned organic food into another consumer fetish drained of much of its original meaning, the big corporate retailers are setting their sights on "local" cache. Shoppers entering Whole Foods outlets can hardly grab a basket without reading "buy local" propaganda. One pamphlet that confronted me on a recent visit poses the question, "What is local?" The answer seems a bit lenient to me: produce labeled "local" must "travel no more than ... seven hours from the farm to our facility."
Still, Whole Foods has committed resources to local foodsheds. After a scrape with industrial-agriculture critic Michael Pollan, CEO John Mackey pledged $10 million per year in loans to small-scale farmers, among other initiatives.To read the rest of the article, click here:
Tuesday, August 22
Progressives Reach Out To Business
by
Caroline Vernon
on Tue 22 Aug 2006 10:46 AM CDT
 Progressives Reach Out To Business
From the Des Moines Business Record
Recently a new friend asked: "Why does Central Iowa need a Progressive Coalition and why is its formation important to the business community?"
I think I speak for all the members of the steering committee working on this coalition when I say that we feel the need to protect the USA. We see an America that is in serious peril of sliding down a path of predatory capitalism and arrogant militarism. We believe that path threatens America's very existence as a democracy.
That peril is not precipitated by global economics or terrorist wars. It is posed by a group of political operatives who are leading this country backward to a path we have been down once before with disastrous results.
That path ends in a stratified society, a society of rich and poor but no middle class . It is a society in which the disabled, the hungry and the elderly are set adrift to fend for themselves. It is the society envisioned by another group of Republicans during the early 20th century, starting with Calvin Coolidge and ending with Herbert Hoover as the bookends of a radical conservative era of tax-cutting and go-go predatory capitalism.
Theirs was an age of anti-unionism and the ephemeral stock market bubble of the "Roaring '20s." Their arrogance, their conservative beliefs and their constituents' demands for more and more "instant" wealth led to the stock market crash of 1929 and the 13-year Great Depression.
That catastrophic outcome of their flawed policies so imprinted itself on the minds of two American generations that radical conservatism failed to regain political power for 45 years.
During that progressive period, America prospered beyond anyone's wildest dreams on the bedrock principles of the New Deal. Those principles included equal opportunity, collective bargaining, a path to wealth for all, a safety net for those in need and security for the elderly and the disabled.
But for the last 20 years, America has forgotten the evils that the New Deal wiped out.
Radical conservatives would have us forget the blood, tears and sacrifices of thousands of rank-and-file Americans in ensuring that they were treated with dignity and fairness in the workplace through collective bargaining. Those unions that the radical conservatives would vilify brought us such evils as the 40-hour workweek, paid vacations, overtime for all workers and a living wage for the great majority of Americans.
They would have us forget the lessons our grandparents learned in the Great Depression as the result of their failed leadership: unregulated capitalism leads to corruption, exploitation and destruction of the economic fabric of the country.
They would have us ignore the fact that when the middle and lower classes are persuaded by hate and fear to support aristocracy and imperialism, the people in those classes suffer the most.
The business community owes a special debt to progressive Democratic ideals. Those ideals have allowed them the opportunity to succeed through superior public education, a fair playing field and the freedom to work and create in an open economy.
That privilege engenders a special responsibility to oppose political and economic policies that would make the opportunity available only to the privileged few.
We on the Des Moines Progressive Coalition steering committee look forward to partnering with those business patriots who would help us stand up for the American progressive ideal.
Bruce Stone is the national director of sales and quality systems for Cable Tech Inc., which has its headquarters in Grimes.
Wednesday, August 2
PROGRESSIVE COALITION OF CENTRAL IOWA and PROGRESSIVE ADVOCACY OF CENTRAL IOWA Purpose Statement
by
Sam Garchik
on Wed 02 Aug 2006 11:16 AM CDT
PROGRESSIVE COALITION OF CENTRAL IOWA and PROGRESSIVE ADVOCACY OF CENTRAL IOWA Purpose Statement
By PCCI and PACI
This came to me from the folks at the Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa and Progressive Advocay of Central Iowa. I wanted to post this in response to those who wonder what exactly Progressives do, and how their views are unique.
Who We Are
The term "progressive," means progress or improvement through social and governmental reforms. These reforms include working for peace with justice internationally and at home, repudiating pre-emptive and unilateral engagement in war, defending the equality of all persons, protecting the environment, championing opportunity and well-being not only for the privileged few but for every human being. Progressives believe in promoting humane and compassionate policies that put people first, and progressives stand for integrity, openness and confratenrity in government. These ideals represent the highest of moral values.
Why the Need for Coalitions?
At times a nation and its leaders can lose sight of these values or let them diminish. For this reason, it is necessary and prudent for persons and for social, business and government entities who hold to these values to unite in lifting them up to the benefit of all humankind. One of the strategic ways in which this can happen is for progressive organizations and individuals to work together in coalitions, thereby enhancing their strength and effectiveness in promoting healthy and positive changes where needed. It is on this premise that the Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa and the Progressive Advocacy of Central Iowa have been created.
What We Do
We facilitate networking, build mutual support, carry out and support educational activities, do advocacy, and serve as a catalyst in establishing two-way communication with elected officials, community leaders and candidates for public office.
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