I was asked a question and I think it is a good one: What good things are happening in agriculture right now? I had to think about it for a minute because, as you may have not noticed, I’ve been focused on some of the other real challenges that lie ahead.
My immediate answer was that for the first time in my lifetime, people are asking questions about their food supply that they previously took for granted. However, I am not convinced that their quest for information is making a difference.
Without question, one of the simplest solutions to the current dilemma is local or regional food systems. We have become too reliant upon the global food cartel to supply our essentials of life. Honestly, the consumer will not change in purchasing patterns until something more dire actually happens and perhaps they just can’t get food.
If you go to a farmers market, more people are coming there to get food than in the past and they are excited to buy more than just vegetables. However, the insignificance of those limited purchases in the big picture of food production is very real.
I rarely look at or share company economic discussions but this one certainly caught my eye. Reported last week on Yahoo Finance:
“Walmart bumped up its sales forecast for the second straight quarter as a boost in grocery sales helped outweigh a slowdown in e-commerce post-pandemic.” The world’s largest retailer now expects sales to rise as high as 6% for the year.
With all the people who complain about consolidation in the food business, I marvel to think how many of them still go to Walmart to buy their food. Still today, the No. 1 factor in deciding where folks will buy groceries is convenience, which is why Walmart and Amazon will now deliver. The pandemic promoted that marketing ploy. Until something drastic happens people are going to forgo principles for things that are cheap and easy.
I am not discounting the fact that many families have found a niche in marketing directly to the consumer, as we have a small hand in that and understand the challenges that come along with the process. It is one thing to sell your animals by the half or whole carcass but when you start selling them by the piece, it is a different ball game.
With all the rhetoric about “getting to know your farmer” (and it is rhetoric), the farmers are still the ones that must make it convenient in order for those direct sales to happen. In fact, little has changed over generations when it comes to farmers bringing food to the consumers. When I was a kid my grandparents had 300 laying hens and I remember going with Grandpa to deliver eggs twice a week to town. Folks never came to the farm, even back in the 1970s, but we had to deliver to them.
Those of us in the business of food production see the opportunities very clearly. You have a consuming public that literally wants to buy local but if you don’t go out of your way to deliver twice a week they will drive to Walmart or order it online from Amazon. The bright spot in agriculture is that if you are willing to deliver you can build a relationship with a dedicated consumer of your products and that is a win for both parties.
The supply chain is fragile right now and I believe much of that is brought on by the global food control aimed at making it tougher for the local/regional producer to achieve success. If you are sitting at home waiting for someone to show up and help you sell your product, you will be just like the 2.5 million that left the farm during the Dirty Thirties. If you are willing to stand on the street corner waving your ear of corn, you have a kernel of hope in the future.
Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].