Farm to Family Connection - Commentary

FARM TO FAMILY COMMENTARY ---Select commentary from a weekly column by Curt Arens published in the Cedar County News, Hartington, NE

April 2006

Food With Integrity

Dear Friends,

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So that means in any food system, particularly those reliant on relationship marketing and distribution, integrity among producers should be the hallmark.

Consumers want more than food these days. They want an experience. "And they are willing to pay for that experience," says Gearld Fry, a consultant for branded beef programs with the Bakewell Reproductive Center.

At a meeting last December in Bloomfield, Fry put it all on the line. "It’s our responsibility as food producers, if we accept the responsibility, to produce a food for a people," Fry says. "That is an important obligation."

"If I can produce a gourmet product for real value" using genetics and management, "that’s where I want to go," he said. "There are a lot of changes about to take place. I want to be a part of the change and help set the standards."

Projections show that organic food product market growth for instance has been steadily increasing at around twenty percent a year for the past two decades. In the next five years, organic and natural beef is expected by most analysts to climb from a $350 million market to garnering over $1 billion.

As long as consumers continue to have confidence in the integrity and quality of these products, the markets will continue to enjoy this rapid growth.

In the organic certified markets, farmers are partnered with a third party certifying agency that can verify that the farmer has kept records on their fields and livestock and that they have followed the rules to the letter. That’s pretty good insurance of integrity.

Other identity preserved food programs like natural and grassfed systems don’t have set standard guidelines, so it’s important for farmers selling those specialized, healthy products to educated consumers to simply do what they say they will do.

If they say they will not use growth-promoting hormones or implants, that is what consumers expect. When you are relationship marketing to customers you know, as a farmer, you want to please the folks so they will trust you and continue to patronize your products.

You might ask your customers if the meat they purchased directly from your farm was tender and tasty or if they had some concerns. That is how you learn what your customers want.

It’s like buying heifers either privately or at the sale barn. If the seller says they are guaranteed open, you kind of expect that to be true. If the seller says the heifers are bred to easy calving, Angus bulls, you hate to see the animal you purchased straining to birth a big white calf.

Integrity and honesty are hallmark on the farm, between farmers and between farmers and consumers. These qualities are important with the old neighborly handshake deals. They are imperative for the farmers who have been buying and selling livestock and grain between each other for years. And in today’s climate, with so many branded, identity preserved and specialized markets on the verge of being quite profitable, integrity will be the key in the success or failure of these ventures.