Sustainable Farming a New Time for an Old Idea?

Sustainable farming practices are a noble idea but in western developed societies a whole lot of people have to be on board to make it work--including consumers.  This piece by Taro Aso comes from the London Financial Times. It is a discussion in advance of the Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila where 27 countries and 11 organisations will meet this Friday. 
My favored paragraph is below followed by a link to the entire piece.

Uncertainties about supply were brought home by the recent price spike and ensuing social unrest around the world. Export restrictions raised fears among importing countries that they could not rely on markets, and provoked a rush to grab land. At the same time, the size of the price surge poses a grave threat to human security; globally, the undernourished will soon surpass 1bn.

Is the current food crisis just another market vagary? Evidence suggests not; we are undergoing a transition to a new equilibrium, ref­lecting a new economic, climatic, demographic and ecological reality. If that is the case, food security can no longer be just a matter of famine relief. The question must be how we can expand food production beyond traditional economic and geographical boundaries in order to live sustainably.

FT.com / Comment / Opinion - The world must learn to live and farm sustainably

We believe non-binding principles would promote responsible investment and sustainable farmland management. They should include, among other things:

● International agricultural investments, particularly sovereign interventions, must be transparent and accountable. Investors should ensure that key stakeholders, including local communities, are properly informed. Agreements should be disclosed.

● Investors must respect the rights of local people affected by investments, in particular land rights. They should also ensure the benefits are shared with local communities in the form of employment, infrastructure, skills and technology transfer.

● Investment projects need to be integrated into recipient countries’ development strategies and environmental policies.

● Investors must take into account the food supply and demand situation in recipient countries. Foreign investment must not aggravate local food insecurity.

● Deals for land and products should adequately reflect market values. Trade arrangements must adhere to World Trade Organisation rules.

Greeley District 6 Performance Check

When community issues start bristling with perceptions rather than factual data I have always been convinced the best way for the public to perpetuate a good outcome for all parties is to become educated on the facts. It makes it less easy for either side to manipulate public emotional opinion for their gain. Note the use of the word "facts" rather than information. Information in the age of the Internet has become lost to a sea of half-rowed boats. Then again my nickname may be Pollyanna Jane but I figure it is worth a try to link to the facts.

I started doing some research on the NCES site. I couldn't find this link on the local District 6 website. It would be nice, if it is not there, to include it.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

I am also beginning to lament not taking my statistical analysis class more seriously so criticism of my analysis here is certainly welcomed and can only add to the debate.

Interestingly I found a few tables on teacher salaries and peer parities for the area but the most recent data set is for 05-06. A lot can happen in three years when the District tends to renegotiate almost every year.

You can skip reading this paragraph unless you want to recreate the same data chart or want to comment on potential comparison errors. I chose the 150 miles radius from zip 80631 for my comparison under the peer tools menu. I went through the advanced search information and simply entered Colorado and the zip 80631. It also helps to know that District Six is classified as MSA-Central City and a Regular School District. Also, Greeley's NCES District ID:0804410. Several of these labels are selections at the bottom to help define the comparisons. I left all other comparative criteria blank. I am sure the comparisons the Union and District have agreed upon are much more tightly controlled for various financial factors. How comparisons are selected can give huge advantage to one party or the other. This may even be why mediators are called in--to do this selection if there is any question on the established process. Oranges need to be compared to oranges not tangerines. There were 10 districts automatically selected for the comparison averages below from my search--including Greeley District 6.

For my own information I am particularly interested in the comparison between dollars for admin to dollars for teachers. The percentages below are what came up. Remember data is for the 2005-06 school year. I have heard that teachers have been negatively hit the last two sessions and also that the Greeley Board earned an award from the State last year for cleaning up a deplorable situation. Confirmation on these would be welcomed.

Peer Averages
Instruc. Expend. 56%
Student & Staff Support 11%
Admin 17%
Food Service, Operations, & Other 16%

Greeley's individual data returns

Peer Averages
Instruc. Expend. 60%
Student & Staff Support 12%
Admin 11%
Food Service, Operations, & Other 17%

These are the possibilities I see in the statistical relationships (remember stats aren't people but they can point the focus to appropriate areas to begin the search for remedies).

First off Greeley is spending more on teachers and less on administrative salaries. It is a probability that the decrease in administration spending results in the slight uptick in Student & Staff Support. I am not interested in the 4th category.

The student teacher ratio returned is 17.1 for Greeley compared to the average 17.0. Hence teachers are pretty close here. There is an average of 1 teacher for every 17 students in the District. This stat however says nothing about the effective distribution of teachers or their workload. We know that classes have 30 or more children in them frequently. Special education courses (remedial and gifted) may be a part of that skew.

However it should be noted that on the profile school district data I looked up on the same site it says 16.8 students per instructor. I do not know why this discrepancy would exist for the same district on the same site unless the comparisons I pulled up for expenditures does not have pre-kindergarten included. *I'd like to measure Greeley without the PK data simply because I think the abundant religious based nonprofits in the area skew the demand for services but I couldn't get the data unless I included it.

I think it would be rather common to conclude the teachers are already near parity and the administration under-paid but it is never that easy. First of all I didn't find any raw data on a ratio for administrators per student--we have just the percentage. So the workload of admin and exactly what is going into the comparison statistics on admin are reported differently from the profile stuff. I could try to come up with a stat but the risk of error would be huge unless I put a whole lot of time into sorting it out--so I won't go there. Going back to the produced statistics in the comparison, this could mean fewer administrators are being paid larger salaries or administrators in general are paid less.

For me, I'll address this more at the end, the question is what is the Admin workload and if there are lesser administrators is this more effective or less. The answer lies in the quality of personnel not the abundance. Also the job duty distribution has an effect. Considering the problems in the past the latter conclusions have some clout. Performance should be closely examined.

As for teachers, depending on what the performance issues are locally, they are above state parity and just below national parity if I read it correctly (and I am sure someone will nail me if I got that wrong). Greeley should be competitive in the labor market considering these stats. Of course that doesn't take into consideration the current trend in rise of cost of living and the cost-of-living increases they have been denied. Workload, due to regulations, or other budgetary cuts may have increased too.

My quick assumption is that it is likely, but I do not have that information, the teachers have fallen behind on parity issues during the last three years and are now facing another cut next year.

The question unanswered is what has happened to management and admin salaries in the meantime. If faced with incredibly poor performance (depending on the issues cited), if I were sitting on that Board of Directors, I'd have been pumping money into improving the quality of administration. What price did that cost the district?

Over all I see a three-fold big picture issues. One is "Is the Greeley area attractive for teachers to make their homes in and raise their families here. Are their pay standards high enough to sustain the quality and status expected for teachers to be role models in the community." Secondly, "Is management failing to give enough support to teachers and if so is it due to inadequate distribution of resources--what is the quality of management decline for minimizing admin dollars." Third, "Are teachers being rewarded for quality performance and held accountable for poor performance. Are performance problems based on lack of support from management, failure to successfully screen, plan, and to acquire funding for high quality personnel." The last of the third issues is a long term strategic visioning problem (directly the responsibility of the Board of Directors).

In my view, as a board member, I'd go looking at the qualifications of teachers and management, in particular, review the human resources policies and hiring procedures independently without any subjective involvement from the district superintendent.

Of course this will not make the negotiations go any smoother at all. Pointing fingers at everyone just indicates the system is broken and we already know that.

My personal point is I think the public at large needs to be held accountable for the broken system because they are the check and balance on any democratic system. Negotiations aren't going to remedy the situation unless the Board of Directors have a better long term plan or are given more funds to work with (if proven they are effectively using the resources they have currently).

The Board of Directors are elected locally. Do they have the skill set needed? Are they puppets for an overzealous administrator? Local and State politicians often play on public perceptions about education to get re-elected on supporting education but then abandon that support when policy and legislation is written. The Jellyfish always rise to the top when times are good. Nationally same thing--we elect those who budget for and structure the public system.

Personally I think that teachers should be paid on the value they produce rather than simple parity and experience. Unfortunately I think it is easy for the public just to calculate value as the need of the moment rather than the future. Senior citizens for example may be looking forward to living on a fixed income in the future and want to control tax increases or are shocked at the rising price tag on education but our children are looking forward to a promising future and if the "whole" is not well educated then we have already sunk the kids' ship before it leaves port. America's competitive advantage has always been fueled by its level of organization and education. You have to have the infrastructure before you can have the performance. Education is the best investment you can make.

I'd be asking my local teachers union what their expenditures of effort are all about when local, state, and federal education legislation comes up. Are they really stepping up to bat?

Enough of the soapbox.

Here is another great site for facts. These are figures on the comparison internationally.

EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective / Indicator 40

EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective

Indicator 40: Teacher Salaries

Teacher salaries are a measure of teachers' standard of living and reflect what society is willing to pay for the direct work of education. Expressed in units of a common currency, they reflect the cost of teachers in an absolute sense, irrespective of a nation's wealth and the resources it can devote to teaching.* Teacher salaries relative to GDP per capita allow for comparisons among countries with wide income disparities. A simple index is created by dividing a teacher salary figure by a country's GDP per capita and multiplying by 100. If the index equals 100, a teacher is paid the same as the per capita GDP. Expressed in this manner, the indicator examines what each country spends on its teachers relative to its ability to pay for their services. For example, a poor country with lower teacher salaries than those of other nations may actually be devoting a larger share of its available resources to teachers than wealthier countries.

Sidebar: Teacher salaries are not a clear-cut marker of teacher compensation /*

* At both starting and maximum salary levels, primary and lower secondary school teachers in the United States had among the highest average salaries of all countries for which data were available when salaries were viewed in absolute terms (in constant U.S. dollars). To illustrate, the 1992 average salary of the primary school teachers at the maximum salary level was higher in the United States than it was in all of the countries reported except Japan, Austria, and Portugal. At the lower secondary level, the starting salaries of U.S. teachers were among the highest in absolute terms, at $21,787, along with those of teachers from Spain ($22,964) and Germany ($27,444).

* However, U.S. primary and lower secondary school teachers did not fare as well when the salary was viewed relative to GDP per capita. All of the G-7 countries with available data equaled or exceeded the United States on this measure (at both starting and maximum salary levels), as did most of the remaining countries.

* The ratio of teacher salary to per capita GDP varied considerably across the countries presented. To illustrate, the ratio of starting salary for primary school teachers to per capita GDP ranged from 84 in Sweden to 188 in Turkey.

*The statement is accurate as long as currencies are converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) rates rather than market exchange rates. PPP rates isolate the current, relative domestic purchasing powers of different currencies and are the rates used to convert the figures presented here.

Community Minded Fresh Foods and Fresh Ideas

One of my favorite activities to burn up intellectual energy and combine it with creativity is to design business systems and strategies in my head. Yes, I am truly annoying at parties and it has been six months since I had a date who could keep up with the rate the squirrel turns the little cage in my mind. But enough about my personal life. The JBS discussion on massive food production as an industry has clicked the switch and the squirrel is running full time producing possibilities. Please, anyone with improvements on the idea, problems with squirrels running their brain cages, send me an email or comment below.

It begins with a collaboration between an organic cattle rancher and an entrepreneurial butcher/shop owner (if there still is such thing as a private skilled butcher). I wonder if there is a modern PC term. I'll have to look that up. But in the meantime, the butcher makes an alliance with the organic cattle rancher to provide beef at small but regular intervals.

The shop the butcher opens is more than a meat counter and processing/storage facility in modern times. Since the butcher will incur the expense of set-up for the regulated meat industry the old-time butcher becomes a new day deli shop complete with a small trendy area for sandwiches and soups. Some wine and cheese to go with that steak? Considering the likely expense of the equipment and health department clearances needed to pass health regulations and safety inspections the butcher can't be "just a butcher". This person will need to be a hands-on community entrepreneur business owner with some good low interest start-up funding. Small business community based economic development should be high on Greeley's town council's list. I've already visited that topic in another posting.

Not that I am opinionated or anything.

In the meantime the cattle rancher should begin developing a label for his beef product. A brand will be needed. Something like Will's Ranch Organics or something to that effect. The butcher agrees to only sell the exclusive Will's Ranch Organic label in exchange for a small price reduction and a specific amount of advertising dollar spent promoting this rancher's brand.

Now then comes the hard part--customers. Organic beef is going to be pricier so the deli shop needs to be in a high traffic area for higher income folk. Another option would be a subsidized rental and marketing campaign for the dying barrios around town given to the deli shop as part of a city-wide revitalisation strategy--but after having been in Greeley for a bit I don't see that progressive planning come from the powers currently in place. However giving the poor access to higher grade quality foods isn't a bad idea in the long run. It just isn't politically very correct to focus taxpayer dollars on declining areas where the wealthy have been lured and planned-away from.

The concept for place of the deli is something with a smaller storefront (but larger production and storage) sandwiched between a Starbucks and Soopers. People are in the food mindset already. Starbucks caters to the highly employed or trendy egos and Soopers hits a lower to middle income segment. A lot of seniors shop at Soopers too and they are "meat" savvy. Although I doubt the rental contract for Soopers is going to allow a main competitor nearby even it it might lift their market segment and encourage more high end shoppers to browse for the other food stuffs. But for this blog this sandwich concept is what I am considering.

Now to go along with the more progressive (no this isn't a political label it is a label for indicating change from the old systems) community-based deli I would suggest eventual expansion into, first, a high-end event and personal catering service operated out of the deli, and secondly, a high-end event cakery. The Cakery of course would need to be sectioned off from the deli meat smells. Then, considering the rising heat this summer, maybe hire an ice sculptor in. Okay I am digressing. Time to turn on the air conditioning.

The concept of expanding into these other two horizontal industries is to increase the flow of traffic coming into the deli of the primary market segment. The original facility design for the butchery can incorporate an easy expansion plan for the cakery to come in and also prep space for the catering service. Installing these kitchens up front if the capital is available might not be a bad idea if there is demand for rental kitchens in the area. That would also give the butcher opportunity to meet other small business entrepreneurs and make new alliances and branding prospects to service with the deli. Shared marketing expenses would be a plus too. Back to the more likely prospect though--The catering service and the cakery both could potentially be sublet to other area small business entrepreneurs or potential partnerships can be formed if capital investment is an issue.

One potential marketing tool for the butcher to use to expand sales would be a type of community cooperative beef purchasing power. Don't have room for a hind-quarter in the frig? Arrange a cooperative buy with other community individuals enrolled for specific buys at the butcher shop. That way the butcher minimizes waste and can give better need projections to the cattle rancher. It also might be a way to service the lower-income segments of the community and bring fresh quality foods within more people's price range.

In the meantime the organic cattle rancher's brand is building with all the local traffic into the butcher's shop. Since the butcher shop isn't going to produce enough demand to keep the cattle rancher alive the rancher is going to have to create a deal with a nearby (but not right next-door) Whole Foods or other high-end natural food store that deals in locally raised organic beef. The fact that the butcher's primary market segment is also the natural foods market segment will be helpful. The proximity of alternative quick purchases of the Will's Ranch Organic label will need to be limited to hedge off direct competition with the butcher. Although packaged meat never has the same flavor as fresh beef. Any family rancher can tell a city-dweller that tale.

So what are the win/wins? The community gets a fresh local product from a responsible and accountable community member. Local family farmers get market prestige and to invest in their own product label. Greeley gets a more diversified economy with an actively developing small business sector relating to its historical base. The Town Council gets praise for diversifying and supporting the little guy for a change. No one gets mega rich and power hungry--they just get an improved quality of life. The loser: questionable corporations like JBS/Swift and the whole concept that bigger is always better for the consumer. It generally is better for investor--especially those far removed from the community served or the product served.

My viewpoint of course.

Disclaimers: While I have family who are ranchers, and I have consulted on building organic brands with, I really don't have a working concept of how auctions are controlled and work for the individual family-size rancher. From what my uncle and cousins share--"It isn't good." Nonetheless the bulk of the rancher's herd, commanding premium prices in the organic market, I am assuming could be auctioned off if a secondary market like Whole Foods won't take up the herd without a big economy of scale. Whole Foods though certainly could jump on the idea of "local sustainability" though as their primary segment should respond regardless without too much price-sensitivity. In fact they could sponsor such a private community deli inside each store--a big potential branding hit for them if the community marketing aspect was managed correctly. But I am not sure the numbers would crunch well in the end. Hiring a skilled, trained, butcher or shopping out their butchery is not cheap. Plus then the butcher wouldn't get to be his own boss. That is a real downside.

How Other Communties Do It

Lately I've been doing some research on Farmer's market as my previous postings indicate. I came across a timely article that is speaking to the changes in urban landscapes as they are encroached upon by real estate developers and the surrounding cities.

I have long had this fascination with how things are changing across America today that has this weird association with the game Sim City my sons used to play before it warped into Sim People. In this game the user builds and designs a city. The key is making the city balance between industry, commerce, private housing, and the associated services (police, fire protection, utilities)so that it doesn't run out of cash flow before enough people move in.

As the game progresses and the city grows (if you haven't torn out your hair in frustration or borrowed the equivalent of the entire Sim treasury first) it reaches the capacity of the playing space (maximization of land use). Then it stalls out and begins dying. In between screams of my frustrated younger son and the mockery of his older math-headed brother I gathered that the remedy for this is to go into each city block and build the equivalent of a small city unit in each block. Rather like putting the microscope on a city and rebuilding the whole into a series of parts that are replicas of the bigger system.

I find that strategy interesting and have given it a lot of though since my MBA years. The idea of building in value to each and every community unit. Sustainability and accountability on a smaller neighborhood level. While this concept hearkens back to eras gone by in America it might explain why accountability appears to have been more effective in less modern eras. Smaller numbers to deal with and a personal investment in the local surroundings.

Now of course my brain is off and running at this idea. That is just who I am. It may pan out to be useful and it may have dead-ends. I certainly can't be the first person that has come up this idea of community based planning. I am sure it has a trendy academic name in some professorial book.

Anyhow, to end this long missive, new, or old-new-again-old strategies for improving individual quality of life and creating sustainable communities is an avid interest of mine.

Home Buyers Are Drawn to Nearby Organic Farms - NYTimes.com

“Open space improves the return for a developer,” Mr. McMahon said. “We have 16,000 subdivisions around golf courses, where developers found they could charge a lot premium of 25 to 50 percent over comparable tract subdivision. But most people who live on golf courses do not play golf.”

The latest variation on this is blending in working agriculture, Mr. McMahon said. Living with a farm, he noted, can bring a buyer permanent views, wholesome activities for children, access to walking and riding trails and inclusion in an epicurean club.

Here in South Burlington, David Scheuer, a developer, runs a firm called Retrovest that specializes in pedestrian-friendly subdivisions. He is adapting the Prairie Crossing model with a 220-acre project called South Village, where he eventually hopes to sell 334 homes at prices of $200,000 to nearly $700,000.

A 16-acre segment of the property, which was not previously used for farming, is now producing lettuce, garlic and other crops, which are harvested for sale to homeowners and others from the area who have joined a local community-supported agriculture group. “Agriculture can be the caboose on the train,” Mr. Scheuer said, “and housing can be the engine.” Once he is selling 20 homes a year, he said, he hopes to pay the salary of a full-time farmer.

At the 220-home Serenbe project near Atlanta’s airport, the cachet of local produce has been added to retiree-friendly businesses, including galleries, a bed-and-breakfast and three restaurants. Steve Nygren, an Atlanta restaurant impresario, started the project on his 900-acre farm.

“We preserved forest and pasture, and there were 20 acres left for an organic farm, and we also have a large wildflower meadow,” Mr. Nygren said. “We’ve set up the design so 90 percent of the houses back up to one of those natural amenities. We are selling our lots at a premium that’s probably three times what the raw lot is.”

Mr. Nygren has focused Serenbe’s second phase on “edible landscaping,” he said. “At street corners there are blueberry bushes, fig bushes, peach trees and spotted apple trees.”

And in more rural areas, developers are buying big tracts of ranchland and selling small lots to buyers. David Hamilton, a principal in Qroe Farm Preservation Development, is pursuing this approach at the sprawling Bundoran Farm subdivision outside Charlottesville, Va. “We go through a mapping process to see functional agricultural units, if they are good for apples or cattle or whatever, then see where they go together.

Kidney Failure--a JBS Byproduct for Greeley Citizens

It shouldn't have to come to people dying or losing their life savings for management to be held responsible. The voters of this country, of this community, should need to be smacked in the face with a decaying hunk of meat before understanding that the "good old boys" have hijacked the Good Ship Lollipop for their own bottom lines. Misfeasance and malfeasance are two different things but both can lead to a very unpleasant criminal trial. I suspect that nothing however could be as unpleasant as facing kidney failure. Premeditated murder by a gun or murder by corporate negligence is the same thing in my book even if the law may not agree with me. I don't care if upper management pressures middle management from their lofty white carpeted offices and throws profit and loss statements in their faces and threatens to fire them. Quit. Just quit. It isn't worth it. Integrity and a backbone aren't bad things to step into the coffin of poverty holding onto. JBS management needs to be held accountable for their bad practices and questionable history in a criminal court if negligent. No political white-washing. Hopefully the related records are not going through a shredder at this very moment. I wonder how chipper their public relations person will feel when they look in the mirror in the morning. Or the professor that called this a minor bump.

Egad something is rotten in Denmark. Have we given birth to the bastardisation of ethics fathered by Greed? Please let this be an isolated incident.

12 hospitalised in connection with E. coli in beef | Greeley Tribune

WASHINGTON — At least 12 people, two of them suffering kidney failure, have been hospitalised in connection with a possible E. coli outbreak in beef suspected of having sickened people in nine states, federal health officials said Wednesday.

The victims may have become ill after eating beef produced by JBS of Greeley, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The number of people reported ill so far is 23.

Another addendum from the Tribune article

As part of the recall, The Kroger Co. said earlier this week that it is recalling packages of meat with “sell by” dates of April 27 to June 1 in the Cincinnati-Dayton region that includes northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana; and in western Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Illinois and eastern Missouri. The company said the suspect beef was sold under its store brands in more than a dozen states.

Soopers and City Market is Kroger. Now we have a label to potentially boycott. I'm bummed. I like the fact Soopers employs senior clerks. Maybe they will find another supplier for their label and upgrade to an organic beef line and give shopper's a better choice and better price than Safeway.