Re: price of food

Mark (earthspn@crocker.com)
Wed, 07 Apr 1999 10:14:08 -0400

I am one of those people who is willing to spend more to support things I
believe in, but what we have not yet addressed in this discussion is the
fact that once organic food leaves the farm, the farmer has little control
over the retail price. I am tired of being gouged by natural food stores
and coops selling wilted, aphid covered organic kale for $1.99 a pound! I
grow a lot of my own vegetables organically so I am not afraid of a few
bugs, but if I am turned off by the produce imagine how a more squeamish
consumer would feel. So the food goes to waste, the store loses money and
the prices stay high.

Another problem with the price of food was told to me by a local organic
farmer. He sells his organic strawberries to two coops. Strawberries
obviously have a limited shelf life. In one coop, they mark them down as
they start to look a little old. This store sells a lot of his berries,
because people buy them both when they are fresh and pay the premium price
and bargain hunters grab them when they are marked down. The other store
keeps the price the same no matter how old and spotty they get. And they
will not put out fresh berries until the old ones sell. So he does not
sell more than two flats a season at their store. And people get the
impression that his organic berries are brown and squishy and cost too much!

So we also need to counter the impression that organic food looks worse
than conventional food, especially when retailers have a hand in it.

Mark
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Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
Hampshire College
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