Sara writes:
<<If one wishes to raise sheep profitably, the only way is with as
little additional intervention possible, using available forage.>>
Not being sure whether this is meant in favor of organic raising or
against--sounds like against given the content of the rest of your
email, but not sure--I'll answer both, from my experience.
Organic raisers generally niche/direct market their products direct to
the consumer (though even when they commodity market, they get premiums
compared to normal commodity marketing). That's something we're all
familiar with on this list, since, after all, we represent a niche
market with our fiber interests.
The direct marketing means there are no (or very few--like a butcher)
middleman costs for either the buyer or seller to have to cover. When
we sell sheep for meat, we charge the customer the price of the
butcher's fee as well as a per-pound price for the meat (and it still
works out to less per pound than lamb at the grocery store). When we
sell wool, we usually have it processed into roving since few spinners
want to prepare their own (being small, we can be responsive to our
market), and again, we pass that cost on to our customers. The only
other middleman cost (don't know if it technically counts, actually :)
is transportation. Since we don't sell by mail, that's pretty small, we
consider it part of our overhead to deliver our product to our (mostly
local) customers. Those who are out of immediate delivery range visit
up here, and pick their purchases up when they come to the area.
What does all that mean? More money in the bank, assuming we do a good
job of marketing--and right now we have all the customers we can handle
for lamb, just by Zack talking about sheep raising to every person he
encounters--a thing he does quite naturally :)
For those growers of products who are chemical free--certified organic
or not--there's a premium available when niche marketing. By "putting a
face on the farmer", those of us who meet and talk in person with our
potential customers build a level of trust with them. Our customers are
welcome to see our farm any time--although I prefer a phone call so I
can vacuum the living room <g> They're not going to find any of the
chemicals used on animals, gardens, or much of anything else (I do still
use Soft Scrub with Bleach, and Windex when cleaning :) We don't need
or use them.
Then, because we went to the time and expense of breaking our 5 acres of
pasture into 12 paddocks, we can rotationally graze our sheep, goats,
and llama, which also helps manage the parasites they undoubtedly carry.
It's been difficult--the 'pasture' is actually a played-out hay field
that didn't get any inputs of chemicals or seed for years, probably
decades, before we arrived, and the continuing high temps in summer
coupled with drought (and some overstocking before we learned to manage
our flock better) have all damaged the fields. But we're climbing back
as we learn how to manage. Although we don't buy certified organic hay
(and the little grain we use isn't certified), I feel comfortable saying
we're chemical free because we choose farmers to buy from who believe in
management rather than automatic use of chemicals. The grain farmer,
actually, is in his early 90s, and became a farmer before the chemical
push was started. He's not used much of anything on his fields for
decades, other than good management--for example, following a year of
corn with a year of legumes to rebuild the fertility.
So, through niche marketing and careful management, we don't need
chemicals on our land to make money. We receive a premium price through
direct marketing, and have truly minimized our inputs. Took a while to
break even, but we are actually making some money off the sheep now (the
goats are just for personal milk/cheese/soap making, but we have enough
people asking to buy milk that we could easily make money from them),
primarily selling meat.
As far as "normal" raising of farm animals and market gardening goes,
again chemical use is relatively recent. It does cost money. It also
has somewhat hidden costs that aren't directly charged to the farmer,
and maybe should be--ground and surface water pollution, health risks to
the farmer from buying, storing, and applying chemicals, and of course
severe health risks to ALL people who consume the chemicalled food,
whether they know it or not. Those costs are born by us all, rather
than just by the farmer (as her/his health care is generally paid for by
the government, if she/he succombs to cancer or the like from the
exposure to chemicals--a known occupational hazard for farmers).
In addition, the products "normal" farming (which is not that old--most
chemical use dates only from since WWII) is generally marketed as
commodities. IE, the farmer takes her/his animals to an auction and
hopes for a good price that day--that's one of the better scenarios.
Being spinners, most of us are aware of the "wool pool" which, at least
in the US, is infamous for not paying much for wool, even wool of top
quality--frequently the shepherd who handles wool as a commodity doesn't
even get enough money to pay the shearer, hence the move toward chemical
shearing and hair sheep. Wool is seen as a nuisance rather than an
opportunity. And while I don't know the current price per pound for
live lamb, it's certainly not like what we get for direct marketing, yet
the cost to our consumers **is less than what the grocery store charges
for the least expensive cuts of lamb**.
You might now point out there are hidden costs to niche marketing.
There's effectively just one--the time involved in direct
marketing/selling/building trust with one's customers. That's a price
I'll gladly pay, compared to the prices of chemical use, while
developing relationships with our customers is priceless. One might
argue we also spend more time managing the use of our land. I don't
have any stats on that, but would guess it's about equal. I don't, for
example, have to be trained and licensed to handle chemicals, or manage
their purchase, storage, and use. I think that's easily balanced
against applying manure to the garden in the fall.
Sara also wrote:
<<it is nice not to use chemicals that are unnecessary, but the total
abstinence and back to "pre-industrial" thing really only flourishes
when the farmers around those people use commercial treatments.>>
This is kind of silly :) Assuming you mean that an organic farmer
surrounded by conventional farmers benefits from their use of chemicals,
well all I can say is that's a very strange conclusion. At BEST, the
consequence is all the bugs, for example, develop resistances to the
chemicals, and move to the non-chemical land. Fortunately, building
health of the soil is the first and most important step in being truly
organic. Once the soil is built, the plants, and then the animals
eating the plants are healthier and more resistant to those bugs, or
diseases, or <fill in the blanks>.
I'm not surrounded by conventional farmers, but I do fine--my only issue
in the garden is squash bugs, which have been bad, but I still get more
than I can use before they overrun the plants. Powdery mildew was a
problem on the peas until I read that spraying a 10%-90% milk/water
mixture on them on a weekly basis could prevent, or at least
dramatically decrease, the presence of PM.
Until a couple years ago, no one was farming any land within a mile of
me. Now a guy has grown field corn to the west, and I've seen him apply
chemicals to that field, but at least he did so on a still day. I've
heard first hand stories of the results when farmers don't apply their
chemicals according to the proper procedures. The result in one case
was a dead garden--yes, every plant died--sick and dying animals, and
sick humans. Yes, tell me about how important those chemicals are!
<< I've never heard that there was any truly measurable effect on the
users of organic - other than their sense of well being. >>
Well, hear it now :) Join an organic gardening list, for example. You
will be amazed at how many people have found their health to be
drastically improved by just beginning to eat organic. I'm an example
of that. Now that I eat about 90% our own or similarly-raised, chemical
free meat, I've had amazing changes in my health.
And educate yourself about the behind-the-scenes stories of factory
farming. Read, for example, "Fast Food Nation". I won't go into
details, but you'll probably never buy meat from a grocery store again.
Or milk. Doesn't talk much about veggies and fruits, but all you need
to learn about that can be found in many issues of Discover magazine,
among others--not, BTW, a magazine financed by organic freaks.
Organic farming is here to stay. It won't be just for niche marketing,
but for the whole world before too long, because the long-term costs of
conventional (westernized) farming are hideous. Resistant bad bugs,
death of beneficial insects, death of pollinating insects, death of the
soil, disruption of the soil chemistry, human and animal health issues,
water pollution, loss of topsoil--the list goes on and on. Bottom line,
chemical and other conventional farming inputs are NOT SUSTAINABLE. We
in the US are cushioned to some extent because the real costs of
conventional farming are paid by our taxes, not directly. Until we or
our loved ones come down with cancers and other debilitating illnesses,
of course.
Holly
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