A farm family loses money in milk farming, goes organic and barely breaks even. Since salaries would be factored into that bottom line, at least they are making a living doing something they love and providing something that we need. The real focus of the coop should be on marketing and increasing demand, since there are clearly too many producers of milk and no one farmer is going to make the total sacrifice of leaving the business to strengthen the whole. They should be looking at DeBeers and their methods (well, the non-monopolistic and legal methods).
They should tout the quality of organic milk and utilize a terroir system that one finds in the marketing of French and European wines; a naming system based on the French Appellation d’origine contrôlée, where location is linked to a product's unique personality would be a step in the right direction. By virtue of embracing specificity, value is created above and beyond the physical product being sold.
An increase in demand is a necessity for the success of a long term organic market. But you have to applaud the small entrepreneurs who take a gamble, investing time and back breaking work to pursue a dream.
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