Changing Agriculture Changing Food The Identity Crisis

1
Changing Agriculture Changing Food - The
Identity Crisis

• Organic Meadow Cooperative
• Uniting and Empowering Farmers

2
The Problem Conflicting Paradigms

• Farming in the industrial era has become and is
  still becoming more
• Highly specialized
• Technology intensive
• Unconnected to nature
• Competitive and individualistic
• Devoid of the human element

3
These trends were initiated by the Old
Mentality (modernist)

• Food is food
• Food is a commodity
• How or where we get it is not important
• Abundance is the key
• People are better off employed at something other
  than farming

4
Emerging Consciousness

• Food and Health
• Food and Culture
• Food and Sustainability
• Food and Global Solidarity
• Food and personal security
• Food and Spirituality
• Food and farm culture

5
New Opportunities food distinguished by

• How it is grown (plants and animals)
• The scale of production
• The ownership of farms
• The personal connection to the farmer
• Where it originates
• Authenticity

6
Organic the leading niche

• A comprehensive set of guiding principles
• Holistic foundation
• International Standards
• Wide and Growing recognition by consumers
• On-farm regime clearly differentiated

7
Two kinds of farmers those who choose to market,
and those who stick to farming

• The majority of food comes from those not wishing
  to develop their own market
• These producers have ready access to an
  infrastructure that often returns less than the
  cost of production
• Farmers need better representation a more
  consistent and fairer share of s
• They need to connect with eaters

8
Farmer owned Cooperative Marketing Organic
Meadow

• Owning the brand maintains more control over
  returns
• Security of supply
• Link to the farmers is a brand advantage
• Equity belongs to the farmers
• Strong values enshrined in the Mission Statement
  are protected through democratic governance model

9
Future challenges

• Price pressure from competitors
• commoditization of organics
• Escalation of input costs
• Financing expansion
• Loyalty of farmers
• Dependency on partners who do not share our values

10
Organic Meadow Uniting and Empowering Farmers
11
Summary Conclusions In The Future

• Viability of the farm depends on involvement
  beyond the farm gate
• Most farmers are unable or unwilling to attend to
  this personally
• Competing leads to a race to the bottom
• Deregulation will intensify these forces
• Never before has there been a greater need for
  cooperation!