The Rural Voice, 2005-01, Page 10BEHLEN BINS
BEHLEN STEEL STRUCTURES
BERG SUKUP BROCK GSI
PATZ JADVENT
RAD SPI
ALL SIZE BIN
FLOORS
John Baak
Construction Ltd.
R.R. 1 Hanover, ON N4N 3B8
E-mail: JohnBaakConstructlon@sympatico.ca
UNIVERSAL TRACTORS
45- 105 HP
KIOTI TRACTORS
19 - 65 HP
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Sales & Service
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Owen Sound 519-376-5880
Phone: 369-5478 Fax: 369-9906
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• Concrete Work
• Manure Tanks
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R.R. #5 BRUSSELS
519-887-9598
or 519-887-8447
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
What the sbstem wants
Keith
Roulston is
editor and
publisher of
The Rural
Voice. He
lives near
Blyth, ON.
It's become a mantra in the past
decade that the consumer is king and
farmers must adjust their practices to
what retailers and processors tell
them the consumer wants. But what
happens when what the consumer
wants isn't necessarily what the
entrenched system wants?
I was thinking about that recently
while listening to Dr. Ira Mandell
from the University of Guelph speak
at the Forage Focus Conference about
the nutritional value of forage -fed
beef.
Nutritionists have been telling us
for several years about the need to
reduce saturated fats in our diets and
the need for more Omega-3 fatty
acids and Conjugated Linoleic Acid
(CLA). Consumers have started to
listen.
Beef has been pretty beat up over
the years because because of fears
about saturated fats. But now
researchers like Dr. Mandell are
finding that rather than being part of
the problem, beef can be part of the
solution in providing CLA and
Omega-3. The hitch is that cattle
need to have more forage and less
grain to produce milk and meat with
the desired nutritional qualities.
So farmers who finish cattle on
forage instead of grain can provide a
product consumers want but there's a
penalty in the form of slower growth.
Dr. Mandell suggested if farmers
want to grow forage -finished beef
they'd be best not to send it through
the traditional system because they
won't be rewarded by the processing
and retailing regime currently in
effect. In a time when a small number
of packers and large retailers control
the bridge between farmers and
consumers, there's no room for
giving consumers what they want
unless you're selling directly to
customers or through innovative new
marketing schemes like Beef
Connections.
But sometimes you can't even do
that. There are consumers who want
chickens and turkeys that are raised
under different conditions than our
uniform modern production and
marketing system has declared is the
only allowable method. Over the
years many small producers have
served these customers, at least those
lucky enough to be able know a
farmer who raised a few chickens.
But Chicken Farmers of Ontario
has been determined to put an end to
this practice. Their inspectors, known
on the concession lines as "the
chicken police" have been cracking
down on farmers with more than 100
chickens as well as the hatcheries that
provide the chicks and the processors
that slaughter the birds.
It's understandable that farmer
members of the marketing board
might resent someone else being able
to make money from growing
chicken without quota, even if it is a
small amount. For some people it's
the principle of the issue.
But what about the consumer? We
have people who want a product that
the market is not producing. Because
of the monopoly power of CFO (and
the turkey board, too) they have no
alternative. With import restrictions
companies can't import range -fed or
organically -raised poultry meat. The
message consumers see is farmers
telling them they can darn well eat
what farmers produce because they
don't have any choice.
The idea of the market place is
that if there is a demand, someone
will fill it. If the big guys don't listen
to what their customers are saying,
then someone else can come along
and start providing the service and
take that part off the market from the
lazy supplier.
But through corporate
concentration and monopoly powers
in marketing boards that stubbornly
refuse to change, the market doesn't
work on behalf of consumers who
want something different. For all we
say the consumer is boss she only is
when we'll let her be.0