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at Fri, 29 Oct 2004 01:52:44 GMT in
>,
(Hahabogus) wrote :
(Alex Rast) wrote in
:
>
>> But this is what I was talking about. Is the number of people who'd be
>> willing to pay more for fresh, organic meat, really so vanishingly
>> small that producers can't direct even a small proportion of the meat
>> they raise into fresh sales
>
>Perhaps you are looking at this from the wrong end. Most busnesses wish
>to increase sales every year, standing still isn't a sign of a sucessful
>business. Going with fresh meats would limit that increase.
>
That can hardly be true of the small farmer, who has finite limits on his
productive capacity. Whatever acreage he has sets an upper bound on how
much he can produce and, in fact, how much he can sell. In fact, given the
limits on his productive capacity, it makes more sense for him to increase
his income per amount sold - which I believe could probably be done by
marketing fresh meat, potentially at a higher margin.
Interestingly, as a whole, given that the U.S. population is near 0%
population growth, and it can be assumed that the amount of food required
by the average person similarly stays static over time, this implies that
the food business as a whole should approach zero growth in the long run.
Otherwise it indicates that people are eating more, indeed, at some point
it becomes to excess, or that food is going to waste. Neither is an
efficient use of resources. In fact, I'd argue that much of this is going
on right now, hence the U.S. obesity problem. If the economic system such
as it prevails in this country requires growth every year, then the food
industry would at some point have to find ways of getting consumers to
consume (eat, in other words) more than they need, and beyond that, more
than they would want. The nationwide problem with obesity could in the
largest sense be the result of that - if people must be forced or enticed
or misled into eating more year after year, then at some point they're
going to start gaining weight. If this is the case, then the current
economic model in the food industry has outlived its useful lifespan and
must be replaced with a new model that is efficient in a zero-growth state.
--
Alex Rast
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
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