On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:50:46 -0500, Brian Fredericksen
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>People blow by my 1989 bee truck in Humvees and Huge gas
>Guzzlers on their way to work with no other passenger in the vehicle. A
>bag of groceries costs $50-60 dollars. Fancy cups of coffee cost $5.00
>and half of it might be dumped out 20 minutes later. Folks drop $100
>for an evening out ... no big deal.
>
>Sorry I just don't feel too bad getting $5.00 for an 8 oz jar of honey, it
>lasts a lot longer then a cup of coffee.
I don’t think Humvees, $5 cups of coffee, and $100 evenings out should be
the reference points by which a sustainable enterprise finds its way. No
one is denying that that part of the economy exists, but wouldn’t a
sustainable beekeeper want to operate according to an entirely different
paradigm? If sustainability is our goal, then I say forget the Humvees and
take the Amish or your great-great-grandparents or Peruvian peasants for
your reference points. Of course, we’re going to make a lot of concessions
and compromises when it comes time to make decisions, but I think a goal of
sustainability compels us to at least begin our thinking with a different
archetype.
I sell half pound jars of honey myself, and it’s something I struggle
with. From my way of thinking, I overcharge for a half pound jar at
$2.75. (I recognize, by the way, that cost structures would be quite
different in Brooklyn, for instance.) I try to justify my price by
thinking: if someone wants to buy such a foolishly small jar, let him pay
for it. I retail a one pound jar for $3.75. I consider that a fair price,
fair to the customer and fair to me. For perspective, my honey is produced
without the use of any antibiotics, chemical pesticides, fumigants, or
repellants. Even though I sell them, I don’t believe in half pound jars.
I think a sensible customer should buy by the quart, if not by the case of
quarts. I don’t consider it insignificant that the folks that keep a milk
cow buy my honey in quarts and the folks that get heart bypass surgery for
their guinea pigs buy my honey in half pound jars. When I sell a half
pound jar I feel somewhat complicit in the prissy inefficiency of it. But
then again, I’ve bought half pound jars myself as souvenirs. And these
folks want to buy honey; why not let them buy mine. At least they’re
buying honey I believe in, even if I don’t believe in the size. So not
knowing exactly what I want to do, I meet the demand that’s there.
Your comrade in guilt,
Eric
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