Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in American Agriculture

14. Marketing in the Niches for Sustainability

193 Marketing in the Niches for Sustainability Modern industrial farming methods are widely heralded as the world’s most productive, but are they sustainable? Admittedly, U.S. food consumers spend little more 10 percent of their disposable income for food, but what are the environmental costs of producing the world’s cheapest food? Industrialization has allowed fewer farmers to provide a growing population with more food and fiber at a lower cost, but what are the social costs of displaced farm families and dying rural communities? Industrial technologies have allowed U.S. farmers to reduce costs and increase production, but how many of the remaining two million farms are economically viable over time? The productivity of agriculture cannot be sustainable over time if the only profitable farms are those that deplete the environment and degrade the quality of life of farmers, rural residents, and society as a whole. On these grounds, U.S. agriculture most certainly should be questioned, if not indicted, for its lack of sustainability.1 The answer to the questions of sustainable farming will not be found by farming more efficiently—doing things right—but instead by farming more effectively—doing the right things. Those who have been most successful in pursuing sustainability almost always tell of beginning their quest by rethinking farming from the ground up. They talk of changing their heads first; changes in their farming then followed. Farming sustainably depends on doing better things rather than on doing the same things better. Farming sustainably will require more intensive management of the farm’s natural and human resources. Most of the early emphasis in sustainable agriculture was on production 14 194 New American Farmer management. usda’s name for the initial sustainable agriculture program was “low-input sustainable agriculture,” or lisa, suggesting less reliance on purchased or external farm inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, hired labor, rented land, and borrowed money. However, if low-input farms are to remain productive and profitable, they must substitute something else for the purchased inputs they are eliminating. They must use some other means of maintaining soil fertility, managing pests, getting the work done, and financing the operation. The “something else” that makes low-input farms profitable is the farmers’ own resource base—owned land, operator and family labor, and equity capital. Low-input farmers manage these resources more intensely by utilizing crop and pasture rotations, diversifying crops and livestock systems to maintain fertility and manage pests, using family labor to do the work and to reduce equipment costs, and keeping investments low to reduce reliance on borrowed money. The logic of low-input farming can be applied to the process of marketing as well as production. In fact, marketing begins with decisions regarding what to produce. Producing highervalued products rather than mass-produced commodities is the logical place to begin generating more net income without increasing land or capital. The focus on higher value should be on qualities inherent within the natural product, such as taste, freshness, or nutritive value rather than cosmetic qualities that can be enhanced more efficiently through use of commercial inputs. Sustainable farmers will be more successful marketing higher-valued products by also targeting individual customers and small groups of customers that are least well served by the existing industrial food markets. The dramatic growth in organic foods during the 1990s has resulted from farmers producing for a specific market that was not well served by the large supermarket chains. Likewise, the growth in “green” markets for all sorts of “natural” products has arisen from growing public concerns about the environ- Marketing in the Niches 195 mental impacts of industrial production methods. Customers who are not well served by the current industrial system will reward those who are willing and able to respond to their unique preferences with products that meet their specific needs. Products can be tailored to meet the needs of specific customer groups by a variety of means, beyond simply deciding what to produce. Unique ways of processing and packaging may differentiate one farmer’s produce from others in ways that better meet the needs of a particular group of customers. Home delivery , convenient pickup, or even inconvenient but authentic visits to farms to pick up food products, may distinguish one farmer’s products from another. Providing fresh, local products before or after the normal local growing season—by using innovative...