Trees, Trees, Everywhere a Tree

My very favorite part of Greeley, thus far, is the abundance of stunningly beautiful trees that the community has nurtured.

After living in the middle of a forest for the past twenty years I worried a bit that I would miss all that greenery as I exchanged it for yellow and brown prairie. But thus far it hasn't been a problem. I simply go out walking or driving around town when I want for a little more green in my life.

The colors and variations of green are amazing. My tour guide called it Greeley's Urban Forest yesterday. We talked for quite a bit about a couple of stunning Weeping Willows (water hogs and root producers--but still stunning) yesterday. The vegetation is truly rich and abundant this year.

So this morning, before heading out to find one of the health care events going on around town today, I thought I'd look up the term Urban Forest. I was wondering what the impact would be if every town and community planned their own forest and oversaw its sustainable management. I know of one community that owns the land the forest is on and during down economic cycles harvests a portion of it to help with the annual budget. Now of course I realize that is not an option for all communities but I did wonder what long term benefits could be managed in this way and what the effects would be on the health of the environment. Individuals will always plant trees I hope. But what about community plantings?

Well thus far, after a quick Google, I found several conversations on the topic of Urban Forests. Here is a clip from just one at the USDA site (again--I used that site in my last post too). I'll look for more later. I didn't want to leave on such a beautiful day with the topic of e-coli up on the blog.

Right now I am out for a foray into the community sunshine. Maybe I'll add some pictures when I get back. From the USDA site on the topic of Urban Forests--the obvious.

Urban vegetation and its management can significantly influence human health and environmental quality in and around cities. Thus, optimal vegetation designs and management practices are essential to sustain human and environmental well-being for current and future generations.

Just Don't Recall the Chicken and the Fish

Okay I can't believe I am blogging about cows. Seriously. But I'm going to do it anyway.

While I grew up in a rural area and have flung a cow pie or two in my life I thought I had left that part of my life behind. I want to go on record here as never once tipping any cow. Well before I drop all that baggage on the sidewalk of life I did do some research in the late 90's on mad cow disease and drove back and forth to the Midwest passing the melodic stench of the feedlots. Okay, well, there was rBGH too come to think about it. And the time I did the community cows shot for a marketing campaign. The cow tried to eat my hair. How can someone just forget that experience.

Gosh I should probably just get this over with. Tip-toe through the cow-pucky so to speak. Wait, wait, I do have one more memory--I also dehorned a cow my sophomore year at the high school ag farm. Part of a well-rounded educational program.

What triggered this memory lane trip you ask? This morning, on my news rounds, I read about the ground beef recall at the JBS USA beef-packing plant in Greeley.* I also read that the public relations team for the local plant is saying something to the tune of "It has already been done, did, been et." Basically the public relation person doesn't seem to know why the recall took so long to announce but notes that these issues come up regularly at this time of year.

To be honest I remember other recalls in the past. But all I remember is that they happened in Greeley. The meat brand names don't stick. I am not certain shoppers have a lot of branding loyalty when it comes to meat. Perhaps they should. It might improve things for everyone concerned. Including the branding of the City of Greeley. Then again maybe we can become known as Greeley--Home of the Pathogen that Ate the Public. There's a screen play in there somewhere I'm sure. Maybe a reality show.

I digress. Have I mentioned my morbid sense of humor? New to town I am wondering if I should interpret that company spokesmodel statement to mean we all should just "Get over it." "There's no damages so you can't blame us, fine us, or cause us too much grief." or "Oh well, maybe next time we will announce it as soon as we know something's up--if you're lucky."

I've done public relations. I know the game. Especially considering JBS is worldwide. They know the game as well. But somewhere there has to be some ethics and accountability in the case of public health. We are what we eat. I have no desire to be a walking diseased microbe. Then again I'd like to see my Uncle actually make money selling his beef cattle again.

Ethics are standards in a company that come above the letter of the law. Supposedly. Although sometimes pretty words are made without any serious intent to create the actions behind those words. I don't work at the plant so I can't comment on the actions other than the obvious failure in contrast to this JBS statement from their corporate website

JBS’s Fresh Approach To Beef Safety.

Like everything we do at JBS^™, we’re taking a fresh and proactive approach to beef safety. We do it by focusing on preventing contamination rather than reacting to it. By optimizing the use of interventions and critical control points with repeated, aggressive attacks on microorganisms throughout the entire production process, JBS’s beef safety is second to none.

JBS’s Multiple Hurdle Intervention Program is a comprehensive six-step carcass pasteurization process developed to fight pathogens including E. coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria and Campylobacter. JBS is at the forefront of the industry in preventing and detecting food-borne pathogens through improved scientific knowledge, technology and testing procedures.

Not that I am cynical here or anything. I am not used to living in a town with a meat bleeding, grinding, packing plant. But I did work in a chemistry lab once. Yes, for pay. I know how to pipette like a mad woman and I know how deadly and daring pathogens can be especially in the face of a local government that thus far I have discovered tends to be very protective about these lower wage grimy corporate labor jobs .

I also discussed with my Uncle switching to raising organic beef ten years ago--both for profit and for the community tribe's health. At ninety-three he was still running three-hundred and fifty cows almost single-handed and complained about mega corporate control over the auction process. I gave him thoughts on breaking that control. He gave me thoughts on my "frumpy hippie-chick with too much education" ideas. I still love him anyway. Hardest working man I've ever met.

But maybe he is right. About the frumpy hippie-chick part. I just don't put a lot of stock into large unwieldy food production systems. I think it should be local and sustainable whenever possible. Call me a radical. I think local government needs to invest more in local sustainability and locally owned small businesses. The big guns can fend for themselves. They get more capital every time I have to go into the local stores and do not have any options but to buy their products.

So the question that came to my mind this morning, all right I am getting there, is what consequences to the JBS company can there be when the source of the contamination isn't a household branded name. Meaning JBS doesn't lick it and stick it on the meat packages. At least, I don't recognize JBS, as a consumer. Neither do my local tour guides.

Does a meat slaughterhouse even worry about consumer branding? I would think the packaging plant is in the supply chain for other meat retailers. Otherwise known as a "middleman". For example DOLE took a big hit on the bad spinach gig a while ago--deservedly or not. The tainted spinach was sourced to its production but DOLE took the brunt of that recall. But in the case of JBS, here we have, or at least I think we have, a nonspecific wholesale label that produces the hamburger good and then packages it and distributes it under several brand names. Swift carried a lot of the primary relationships with wholesalers and was taken over by JBS (which was the largest beef processor in South America before the buy-out) if my zoom through their corporate press release history is correct. The holding company is S & C Holdco 3 Inc.

In other words JBS is a slaughter house with little direct end consumer accountability and is third in an industry that looks like an oligopoly. Tyson Foods is a competitor. (If I have the process incorrect I am sure a good public relations person worth those big bucks will be sending me an email soon). Hence the image hit on the JBS corporate family, with the faulty processing, probably isn't going to be long term. You and I really don't have an option to just stop buying their products when we shop to send them a message where it hurts--the wallet. Instead there is a kind of trickle down effect that their wholesale customers give if people lose faith in the quality of the meat they are buying. The impact of shoddy practices, if that is the case, is lessened and removed from each incident. Read this as "fewer long term losses to the JBS company and less money spent on image repair".

So this is why their PR types can be a bit more cheeky and a whole lot less apologetic. The public isn't listening real closely until someone dies and it hits CNN.

I decided to hunt up some obligatory facts. Then I stumbled on the following commentary on the USDA's page (not that I am a big fan of the USDA but they do put out a lot of miscellaneous reports that are seemingly unconnected internally but can be puzzled out if someone is desperate enough and a regular insomniac like me. Or simply isn't a stampede fan and has beef on the brain).

ERS/USDA Briefing Room - Food Safety: Labeling and Traceability

How can there be a market for safe food when safety cannot be observed? Food that is contaminated with disease-causing pathogens may look, smell, and taste like food that is free of pathogens.

* If consumers cannot observe differences until it is too late, will food suppliers have any incentive to produce safer foods? Will manufacturers and suppliers be compensated for their time and costs involved in producing safer foods?
_______________

So I guess I am not the only one wondering just what it will take to instill better practices in the mass production markets. And the second question behind the * makes me even more nervous. After all what incentive do the mega-processors have in producing safer foods if they don't face strong enough direct public consequences. We have to rely on the wholesale accounts to pressure for changes? Oh yeah like that is going to happen. I doubt the wholesale accounts have many alternatives like, say for example, importing Argentina beef in the vast quantities needed. There are many reasons that won't happen--not the least Americans in Beef Central probably aren't going to opt for foreign beef regardless of quality or price protections. And, in my view, I am pretty sure foreign beef has less 'trackability' in their controls and restrictions on it. At least in nonindustrialized countries.

Ah yes, we are back to that all American beautiful concept of being too big to fail. How aware, lately, we consumers have become of this concept. But do we understand just how deeply entrenched the problem is in market place other than the obvious financial arena.

Therein lies a second rub. Government regulation or lack thereof.

Following the trend of thought on the USDA site, these government types seem to think that the idea of traceability helps to counter this growing concern to our food supply. They suggest that by ensuring that the meat can be tracked back to the contamination point that increased penalties on the food processors might do the trick. At the same time the USDA questions if Americans will be willing to pay for increased food security.

Well I think we all know how that goes when the big guns have fingers buried deep in political pockets. JBS reported sales of $6,231,100,000 last year and has 21,200 employees (Dun and Bradstreet 2009). That buys a lot of political power. Consumers don't have that kind of power unless they act collectively. Essentially the slap on the rump turns into a thump on the fingers with a promise that things will get better and just a few dollars in fines to make it look good.

It seems to me that either way this road goes the cost to the consumer is going to go up. Fines and penalties and increased insurance premiums are going to raise operational costs leading to increased prices at the supermarket just the same as better practices will increase operational costs and raise the end price. Wouldn't it be better, even logical, if the USDA just enforced better safety practices?

That sounds like a good plan to me.

Do I have a better idea. Well. At first I was thinking that if the food processor had to put their brand prominently on the consumer end packaging maybe that would help. A company afraid of losing market share can find more ethics out in the pasture really quick when their name is in front of the consumer's face. But then I realized that consumers have short term memory deficits when it comes to actually reading labels anyhow and the wholesalers aren't going to switch accounts unless they have a viable alternative. This industry has been consolidating for the last couple of decades. Alternatives don't grow on trees. Plus I would think the packing plant has an insurer paying their actual losses. The premiums will rise making the insurance companies much happier and consequentially controlling the actual cash flow/capital loss to the packaging plant.

Arrgh. So much for accountability in the food chain supply. Maybe I should have turned this blog piece into a chant on why each community needs to concentrate on building sustainable food and water systems. Is it too late? Farmer's markets anyone? Farmer's markets with organic beef for sale? Double aargh. Enough cow chat.

So, um. Well. Um. No, not really... to answer my own question. I don't have any reasonable solutions for this topic. Other than eating fish and chicken until the cows come home. And I haven't been impressed with the fish selection locally. I'm in the middle of the country though so I won't go into that rant. However the upside exists for some segments. When the chicken processors get in trouble again and the fish are depleted I guess the soybean farmers will rise in influence.

Anyone else out there have one? A solution, not a beef.

*JBS acquired Swift in 2007.

Greeley's Farmers Market Makes a Headline

Farmers Market in Greeley makes the headlines. I zoned in on this article from the Greeley Tribune right away this morning. It's a good beginning.

I've been here though. The people are great. Friendly, helpful, etc. Although it is not the farmers markets I have been used to attending it is a foundation to expand on. I have been gathering information about the types of local farms in the area. It is easy to get a feel for the traditional crops. If there is a decent pooling of smaller organic or family farmers around I haven't sourced them yet.

Grants are available to help farmer markets organize and grow through promotion. The text below comes straight off the USDA site.

The Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) was created through a recent amendment of the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976. The grants, authorized by the FMPP, are targeted to help improve and expand domestic farmers markets, roadside stands, community-supported agriculture programs, agri-tourism activities, and other direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities. Approximately $5 million is allocated for FMPP for Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 and $10 million for Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012. The maximum amount awarded for any one proposal cannot exceed $100,000. Entities eligible to apply include agricultural cooperatives, producer networks, producer associations, local governments, nonprofit corporations, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, regional farmers market authorities and Tribal governments.

However when I searched on Colorado farmers markets and came up with the CFMA (Colorado Farmers' Market Association) I didn't find any reference to available grant funding on the site. I am being told that the governor shot down the federal sponsored grants for Colorado. I will have to check on that background and what provision it rode through the governor's office on. I tried a quick search and got nada. Did find this promotional campaign going on in the southern end of Colorado though. Some one is on it.

Back to the formation of a good market-- there is a lot of requisite information though including insurance which is a big bugaboo. I helped to create a farmers market in a small town a few years back. Once there was a fixed place and agreement with the landowner plus access rights granted from the city along with the always present insurance needs met--it was off and running with a bit of professional promotion. The greater share of organic farmers from the area heavily supplemented their annual incomes (the family farms at that time were clearing around twenty grand a year. The bigger ones could pull out forty).

The interesting part of it all though was the interplay between established retail grocers and the market. At first we had to fight tooth-and-nail against the retail grocers trying to shut us down and throwing out misleading press releases on the topic. Then once a local natural food store gave us their parking lot one day a week (of course there was plenty parking all around for their regular customers) they saw a huge bounce in their internal store sales. Of course produce sales didn't see the bounce during that particular week day but they picked up all the other days. The family farms were very grateful to the retailer and when asked for advice on certain products, etc., they would direct the consumer to the store to pick up items associated for the meal or for middle of the week purchases. The retailer then piggy-backed on the farmers market and used it to gain a stronger brand on community marketing and fresh produce. It was a win-win.

The following year we had grocers in competition for hosting the marketplace! It has, over the years, become a central social gathering place on Saturdays during the harvest months. It makes getting out of the house early on Saturday mornings something much better than a chore. It becomes a labor of fresh food love.

I miss that.

Enjoy season's eatings at farmers markets | Greeley Tribune

Before there were refrigerators and freezers, before ships and airplanes could transport food across the world in a day, before advances in food preservation and storage made keeping food for months a reality, people simply ate what was available to them.

That meant they didn't eat fresh tomatoes or grapes in the dead of winter. They didn't eat butternut squash and potatoes in the spring. They didn't eat salad in the fall.

Now, we've come to expect food availability at any time of the year. And for the most part, we can have our tomatoes in winter and salad all year.

Where is the Little Guy in Greeley Politics?

After a morning trip to Safeway to purchase fresh white fish for my brother's father's day dinner, I was amused to find a posting from Greeley's Tribune's Gnarly Trombone on the self-service checkout lanes around town. I like this Gnarly Dude. Gnarly has more media spunk than some.

I had never seen one of these self-checkout lanes until I came to Greeley. Although I have read about them in retail industry papers. There are some other technology revolutions in store for shoppers too. But I don't think we will see these all at once. For one labor union's can't be too pleased about swapping out people for techno-chips and hand held inventory devices. Secondly, as every good marketeer knows, you have to soften up the public for innovative changes that effect their routine habits or be lynched on the town plaza.

I have a good friend from Canada who mentioned that his local store has the self-service lanes as well as specialized lanes that the disabled workers can staff. He also noted that shopping carts can't be had without a coin deposit that releases each one from its mechanical prison. I thought the second concept very progressive and interesting. I thought the third a great idea except for the increasing rise in the homeless who use them for luggage storage. But I won't digress into macro-economics here.

We, my friend (an attorney) and I, had a long debate on the employer's obligation to hire disabled workers and the public patience with these specialized lanes. While I thought I would be more likely to shop at a store with these lanes (thus offsetting the cost to the business for specialized lanes) he said that a lot of consumers are too impatient (sometimes it seems it can take a longer time to move through the modified checkstand line).

I see the modified checkstand as a reasonable accommodation for a worker's special need. Therefore I can be a little more reasonable and modify my own needs to be accommodating to a fellow human- being with less employment options through no fault of their own. Whereas I refuse to try the self-checkout lanes merely because I see them as a method for hastening getting rid of real people jobs rather than merely annoyingly time-consuming to educate myself on how to use them correctly. The way jobs are disappearing from our economy, and considering the trend has been to make policies (and Supreme Court judgments) against labor, I figure it is in my own self-interest to slow this process down. Regardless how insignificant my individual contribution may be. At least until some decent job creation policies exist to transfer people being cut in one industry to new service based jobs in other industries hits the employment scene.

Eventually though, I am well aware, the overall consumer demand for the lowest prices will win out.

The working-class public screams at outsourcing and corporate labor practices yet they still drool over having a Wal-mart in town. In my view it comes down to that dichotomy we all face--do I act as an individual or do I act for the benefit of others. The hypocrisy between lower prices or living wage employment practices though is not just in the corporate offices and inside our own homes. It exists in local governmental practices as well.

I am still trying to figure out why Greeley doesn't have a strong Mom and Pop sector in competition with these big guns. Basically, if I am correct, Safeway and Soopers (Kroger) have been battling out for the main local marketshare in retail grocery. For a while I thought Kroger a subsidiary of Safeway but I checked the corporate website and decided that is not true. There are rumors on the Internet back in 2003 that Wal-mart owns both but that also is not true (nor would it be healthy for anyone but Wal-mart, Safeway, and Kroger investors). Of course Wal-mart is in town along with Sam's club (Wal-mart). That creates a whole different pressure to drive down labor costs locally.

I'd love to see Smart and Final pop up here for the wholesale competition to Sam's club. But they aren't big enough to take on Sam and smart enough not to try. I haven't found any other option for the restaurant wholesale industry locally and this may be why the local restaurants are sadly lacking (my personal opinion) tasty and better fare.

I am told there were some other options until recently and I know Avanza is still here in town (but that has more a niche speciality line of goods and is not directly in Safeway's target market segments--so they get to escape--for now). My own biggest pet-peeve is I can't find a decent local farmer's market without driving out of town. Where are all the small farmer's?

I'll also admit I have a special pet peeve with Safeway's Club member program. Kroger's Soopers has a similar but less devious tracking program. I didn't have to give up any of my personal information to get a Sooper card. Therefore I shop at Soopers the most.

I've been in marketing. I know how these programs work. I've also gone through union organization from the management perspective in this industry (another story for another time--I left this industry a while ago). Many middle-management jobs are eliminated by this program through the increased efficiency in collecting consumer marketing data. I understand and agree in the efficiency part--it is a necessary part of staying competitive. It can lead to a better product mix selection for consumers. On the flip side I don't see these operational savings being passed on to the consumer although the consumers are the ones giving up their information in the name of "savings". But instead I believe the cost savings of this system translated into higher executive pay and ROI for the company. It used to be companies had to pay and work a whole lot harder to get consumer's to give up that kind of data. There was a value exchange taking place and the consumer often received real incentives for giving up their personal shopping data. Now it is no longer clear that happens.

It is clear that if you don't use Safeway's member card system you'll be forced to pay higher prices. It is not clear that the card is tied uniformly to lowered sale prices. They use the term "money-saving promotions" rather than sale prices for a reason. It is clear it is "exclusive" to those giving u their information to get a card. And most consumers don't understand the internal systems or technology well enough to "beef" about any of this. ( Which is why I am special. I always have to analyse any system. Bad genetics I guess. I didn't get the sheep's costume at birth.) It irks me though that many consumers appear to not even understand how valuable all that personal information is to the company and don't give a second thought to giving it up freely. I don't even need to mention that there is little restriction on its use and, likely, a pretty profit made from reselling this data. Ever wonder how some of those junk mailers get your address? If the savings were being passed on to consumers then Safeway would have long ago won the competitive wars locally by having substantially lower prices and better business practices Instead I think Safeway's competitive edge comes from acquisitions and the use of economy of scale to push out competitors.

But least I forget my focus on the blog for the last few postings... my primary interest remains why local government seems to still be pushing for more mega-corporate entities rather than seriously building up the Mom and Pop sector or refurbishing declining sections of town containing Mom and Pops. I'm still looking for more information on what is going on behind the scenes. I'd still like to see some direct representation for local farmers and quality fresh produce for local consumers. Also I don't understand why the public doesn't seem to be too troubled by the decay of the local sector. Interesting town.

I am having fun exploring these ideas.

Gnarly Trombone: Self-service: Swim through Jell-O | Greeley Tribune

This is supposed to be the newest labor-saving wonderful thing, and we should use it, because it saves energy or trees or something good like that.

However.

I hate self-service lanes.

A lot of our stores have them set up now, so you can “conveniently” check yourself out, pay through a slot, and be on your way. Lickety-split.

But it never works that way.

NEVER.

Have You Seen "Ma and Pa" Lately

Finally some answers are coming through. Thank you to every one who has responded.

My astute and wonderful tour guides had no idea that there was a small business development center in Greeley. It is nice and refreshing to see some focus on the small business arena. Although I would take odds with the overall strategy being generalized here. New businesses have a low percentage of success rate. Placing an emphasis on giving the new entrepreneurs help at the expense of saving those going under could be a less efficient use of time and money. Targeting specific industries for help might be a better strategy. The economy is struggling to make a change over between industries. Helping businesses build better marketing campaigns, build public awareness, and extending low interest loans to the "Ma and Pa" businesses whose business sectors are likely to see growth once the economy has emerged from the pit of bleakness.

Certainly an open conversation with the public and the need to support local small businesses is imperative and a service the Chamber could offer with little direct cost other than public relations. However trying to convince people that shopping at those discount chains is not in their long term interest is like asking them to learn advanced math. They won't be pleased. The dollar saved today will suck two dollars out of your wallet in the future as jobs continue to be outsourced and small "Ma and Pa" shops are pushed to become bigger and bigger to survive. Got to cut those costs somewhere. Potentially, as we have seen over the last two decades, less than living wage job creation, and outsourcing entire industries to countries with competitive advantages in labor.

The counter of course is retraining and reeducation of our labor forces to focus on the emerging service jobs in health care, greener energy and production, and anywhere technology is creating new methodologies and efficiency. But of course this takes good strategic government planning to realign these workers and that should have started happening, oh around, let's say the year 2000. I digress.

In the meantime the good citizens of Greeley could do the "Ma and Pa" shops a whole lot of good by spending their dollars in locally owned small business whenever they can. I understand what it is to be the single Mom and have only a few dollars to stretch until the next payday. I understand why people are inclined to go to Walmart and Sam's Club. But I also understand it is not entirely in my self-interest belonging to the underclasses to do so.

It is all about more than just today. There is tomorrow to consider.

Below is the article I've clipped from the Greeley Tribune. I am also thinking about posting a piece I have been working on about the local economic development corporation. Maybe I'll work on it and get it up later this week. Ciao.

Recession slams ma and pa shops | Greeley Tribune

MacQuiddy and others in the Greeley business community also note that while some are closing, others are opening. MacQuiddy said the chamber is going to focus on the new ones coming in to help ensure their survival.

“It's so unfortunate seeing some of these businesses that are closing, but I think they realized if you're undercapitalized going in, it's just very difficult to succeed. You have to have a good business plan, and you have to do some forecasting.”

The Greeley chamber has partnered with the city of Greeley and the Small Business Development Center in Greeley.

“We're getting out and talking with businesses one on one, saying, ‘What do you need? How can we help?' We're being very proactive. It's so important we thank businesses for doing business in Greeley and say, ‘What do you see on the horizon? What can we help you with?' ”