Jane Black writes in Wednesday's Post about a farmers market which serves as an intermediary between local farmers and their customers. Organized as a co-op, it sells the farmer's produce for a 10 percent cut of the proceeds, thereby saving the farmers from having to sell and enabling them to continue producing. It sounds good. It sounds like the Reston farmers market at the corner of Rte 7 and Baron Cameron back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. That was run by a hippie who settled down and made his living by serving as a middleman between farmers and customers. He got into trouble with the zoning people by going too far a field for some of his products, but it worked for a long while.
Selling cooperatives go way back. They work, for a while, I think, but eventually something changes. The person who drove the enterprise gets old or tired, or both; free market forces drive expansion and conversion into something like Whole Foods, or the clientele ages, changes, or moves.
Blogging on bureaucracy, organizations, USDA, agriculture programs, American history, the food movement, and other interests. Often contrarian, usually optimistic, sometimes didactic, occasionally funny, rarely wrong, always a nitpicker.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
French Brides Wear Bespoke Dresses
That's one fact in Dirk Beauregarde's piece on French weddings. Been a while since I married my wife, but my impression is that many if not most US brides wear off-the-rack.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
That Christmas Tree Tax
Steve Sexton at Freakonomics has a post defending the "Christmas tree tax" of last year. Needless to say I agree with him.
Monday, January 02, 2012
The Omni-presence of Internal Politics
Read a biography of Gen. O. P. Smith, the commander of the First Marine Division in Korea. Also read the biography of Steve Jobs. In both cases, as pointed out in the case of Jobs by this Govloop post,
organizational politics played a big role in the subject's life. In any bureaucracy, military, civilian, private enterprise, what we call "politics" is always present.
organizational politics played a big role in the subject's life. In any bureaucracy, military, civilian, private enterprise, what we call "politics" is always present.
The Founding Flip-Flopper
Flip-flopping has a long, if not honored, history. The blog Boston 1775 moves south to Philadelphia to take note of a Revolutionary era flip-flopper in three posts. New Year's Day 1777, New Year's Day 1778 and the justification from later in 1778, after the Brits had left Philadelphia.
The last shows that the Reverend Witherspoon had a wicked sense of humor, and provides a justification which our modern day politicians could use as a pattern: "I was neither pro-[insert word of your choice, war, individual mandate, conservative, whatever] nor anti-[insert the opposite word], I was a politician.
Incidentally, I note that the verse from 1777 calls upon God, while the verse from 1778 calls upon the classical gods of Greece and Rome. Probably not significant.
The last shows that the Reverend Witherspoon had a wicked sense of humor, and provides a justification which our modern day politicians could use as a pattern: "I was neither pro-[insert word of your choice, war, individual mandate, conservative, whatever] nor anti-[insert the opposite word], I was a politician.
Incidentally, I note that the verse from 1777 calls upon God, while the verse from 1778 calls upon the classical gods of Greece and Rome. Probably not significant.
Sunday, January 01, 2012
"Liberating Strife"
I rarely thank politicians, particularly Republican politicians. However Mr. Romney is celebrating American patriotic music, as discussed in this NYTimes piece today, and his interest triggered my interest.
And Mr. Romney does not just recite the lyrics — he annotates them, offering his interpretation of the meaning. “Most of the time when we sing a song, we don’t think much about the words,” he said. “But I’ve begun looking at these words and thinking about them.”The complete verse reads:
“O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,” he said, is a reference to the country’s soldiers. (“Any veterans in this room here today?” he asked. “Thank you for your service.”)
- O beautiful for heroes prov'd
- In liberating strife,
- Who more than self their country lov'd,
- And mercy more than life
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sssh, the Secret of Farming
As it says here, for many years farmers lived on their depreciation. What that means is that as long as you have some cash flow and low debt, you can survive. That's how my father did it.
NY Times and Agriculture on 12/31/2011
The Times has two stories on agriculture today: one on the growth of big organic farms outside the country, drawing down water supplies and exporting organic produce to the US; the other on the conversion of non-ag land to farmland in Iowa, and the expiration of CRP contracts.
The organic piece gets lots of exposure: comments and the top emailed piece. As the article points out, we Americans want our cheap organic tomatoes in December, and Mexico, Argentina, and Chile, and the nations in between, are willing to supply them. The growth of exports helps those nations, which isn't something the comments note, although the article does mention it.
The Iowa piece reminds me of the 70's, when Earl Butz supposedly promoted fence row to fence row planting. If the farmer is able to buy the land, he can tear out the fence rows, gaining some acreage and improving the efficiency with which he can farm. Again, it's the workings of the free market in agriculture.
The organic piece gets lots of exposure: comments and the top emailed piece. As the article points out, we Americans want our cheap organic tomatoes in December, and Mexico, Argentina, and Chile, and the nations in between, are willing to supply them. The growth of exports helps those nations, which isn't something the comments note, although the article does mention it.
The Iowa piece reminds me of the 70's, when Earl Butz supposedly promoted fence row to fence row planting. If the farmer is able to buy the land, he can tear out the fence rows, gaining some acreage and improving the efficiency with which he can farm. Again, it's the workings of the free market in agriculture.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Petty Bureaucracy in the Private Sector: B&B Complaints
James Fallows had a bad experience with a B&B (owner forgot his reservation) and petty bureaucrats prevented him from publishing his review because he didn't actually stay at the B&B. Read the whole thing here. In the old days, this was a Catch-22.
Organic Versus Locavore
There's a tension between organic food and the locavores, a tension I see in this NYTimes article. There's a scarcity of organic milk, particularly on the East Coast, partly because prices haven't risen high enough, partly because of the inflexibility of supply (takes 3 years for a dairy to convert to organic production), and partly because there's not enough organic grain grown in the East. The latter is important because grain is important for milk production; cows produce much less milk if they're simply grazing pasture and eating hay. So there's an imbalance in the food economy, an imbalance which the free market fills by transporting food/grain from distant places, but that's not something which locavores can be happy about.
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