Interesting questions. Wegman's found that in order to source locally-produced produce, they had to abandon their centralized purchasing model and let each store develop relationships with farmers in their immediate area. If Walmart wants to do local, they will confront the same need. One of the things that drove local farmers out of production in the first place was the centralized buying of the supermarkets as they came to dominate the food scene. Any move toward relocalization is likely to expand opportunities for local producers. Walmart could add stability to the market by adding some coordination to production, so I don't see their involvement as being necessarily bad. Their lowest possible cost model, though, will no doubt create downward pressure on prices, which is not a good thing for local producers. The only way to get prices down is by scaling up production and substituting machinery for hand labor (or using cheap imported labor).
It will be quite some time (if ever) before human labor can compete with machines. The impediment to using more machines is the capital cost, which do not make sense for small producers. They would make sense of purchased and used cooperatively, though, so this too is an area where collaboration would be sensible. It might even be essential to maintain viability if competition intensifies, as some of you appear to believe will be the case and we transition to higher energy costs. At some point, energy costs will be high enough that labor will compete more effectively with machines. As that happens, production costs will increase, even with markedly lower average wages in the face of declining jobs in other sectors. Food costs will rise, in line with the labor-intensive "boutique" production of today. That will put the squeeze on many lower income people to feed themselves and their families. The way to reduce costs for them will be the traditional one of substituting their labor for money by growing food themselves or bartering their labor for food. We may see a temporary reversal of the trend toward increasing energy prices as the world slips into a protracted recession, reducing energy demand. I expect a resumption of the upward march of prices with in a few years, though, and I hope we can take this respite and use it to position ourselves for the future. Investments in collaboration to lower costs in the short run will pay dividends in the long run as well. Joel At 10:33 PM 10/8/08 -0400, you wrote: >At 03:43 PM 10/8/2008 -0400, you wrote: > >[Karl North:] > > > >| These initiatives are all good food for thought, but we need to > >| bear in mind that Vermont is a special case. > > > >Yes, but so is Tompkins County. > >Jon--I agree with your suggestion that we are positioned to be successful >with the "Vermont model". > >...part deleted... > > >So the question is whether a local farm cooperative of the kind described > >in the article can hang on until the cost of fuel finally levels > >the playing field by making Wal-Mart food more expensive than > >locally produced food. > >And I wonder what this time framework will be? The problem is that >Wal-Mart has an economy of scale not seen locally. However, things are >going to change with the local Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart wants to expand by >40,000 sq. ft. to become a Super Store, meaning that they would add a >Wegmans-scale supermarket to the existing >Everyhing-You-Could-Ever-Want-That-Is-Made-In-China store. (I know this as >I am on the City of Ithaca Conservation Advisory Council and we are >currently reviewing the environmental impacts of such an >expansion.) Would they get on the local and organic band wagon? And if >they did, how would this affect the truck farm industry in the Central >Finger Lakes? GreenStar, Wegmans, Tops, Ludgate's and a host of other >outlets are already involved in promoting local and organic or at least >"natural" foods, so perhaps the expanded Wal-Mart would give a boost to the >local food economy... assuming that anyone would want to sell to >Wal-Mart? Lots of stuff going on. Tom > >****************************************** >Tom Shelley >118 E. Court St. >Ithaca, NY 14850 >607 342-0864 >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Compost Educator and Sustainability Scion* > >What Does Zero Waste Mean? >"If it cant be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, >resold, recycled, or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned, >or removed from production." >Berkeley Zero Waste Resolution >See http://www.cityofberkeley.info/council8/newsletter.pdf > >*noun: a shoot or bud of a plant, esp. one for planting or grafting >_______________________________________________ >For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, >please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > >RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: >[email protected] >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
