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Membership to Vote on
Expanding Organic Meat
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"While continuing our focus
on and preference for local/regional and organic first, should the
Co-op expand its meat offerings to include certified organic meat
products?" [Yes or No]
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This article was jointly
written by the Co-op's Board of Directors and Collective Management Team
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The Board and Collective
Management Team have put forth the question above to be voted on by the
membership at the Annual Meeting in April. Since the referendum in
October of 2005 our sales in the Meat Department have grown over 40%
per year. We have provided a consistent and fairpriced market for our
local purveyors of meat, purchasing over $350,000 wholesale since the
referendum.
Yet, we also face challenges with our very successful meat program.
Among the challenges we face, not being able to consistently provide
our members and customers with high quality, sustainably- raised meat.
We have increased our purchase of poultry to every week instead of
every other week and can still run out prior to the busy weekend sales
days or right in the middle of the weekend. Our Farm Direct Meat Buyer
has scoured the area and signed up with numerous farmers to provide us
with beef, pork and lamb, but we still experience shortages which mean
that our customers and members sometimes have to buy a lesser quality
product at a store other than the Co-op. We find that certain items,
such as bacon and pork chops are virtually impossible to keep in stock.
Whatever we receive leaves the store very rapidly. We also have
difficulty during the holidays providing our members and customers with
the cuts of meat that they traditionally serve at holiday meals.
The Co-op is committed to focus on being the outlet for local/regional
meat and will continue to promote these products as the most
sustainable and best choice for our members and customers. But we think
that we need to provide an alternative when the local/regional supply
cannot meet the demand. In light of all this, we want to expand our
ability to sell high quality and sustainably-raised meat from only
local/regional to include certified organic from other sources.
One such alternative is Organic Prairie (see www.organicprairie.coop).
Organic Prairie is an independent farmer's cooperative that has been in
operation since 1996. They are part of the Organic Valley Cooperative,
we carry their dairy products which are also from small sustainable
farms. They provide certified organic beef, chicken, pork, and turkey.
They also have deli meats such as Hardwood Smoked Ham, Roast Beef,
Roast Turkey Breast, Smoked Turkey Breast, Canadian Bacon, Roast
Chicken Breast, and Pepperoni Sliced Deli Meats and beef jerky.
Another alternative is Applegate Farms (see www.applegatefarms.com).
Applegate purchases from over 300 small farmers and produces organic
deli meats, cheeses, beef jerky, snacks and frozen foods.
We have also been receiving the feedback that many of our members and
customers are disappointed when they cannot easily purchase items such
as organic chicken broth here at the Coop. There is presently no one in
the region that sells a local/regional natural or organic chicken or
beef broth; there are many barriers to this type of production as the
USDA has stringent rules and regulations that must be followed that are
both extensive and costly. The Co-op can purchase certified organic
chicken and beef broth from our distributors (one variety is Pacific
Foods, see www.pacificfoods.com,
another is Imagine Foods, see www.imaginefoods.com) and can
supply our members and customers with something that presently they
must purchase elsewhere, sometimes at a higher premium. The same
applies to certain other products such as organic soups that contain
organic meat and organic frozen foods that contain organic meat, we
carry several brands now but only the vegetarian part of the entire
product line.
While our commitment to supplying our customers with the best possible
options will be enhanced by the passage of this referendum, our
commitment to our local/regional meat suppliers will remain strong and
we will continue to provide an economic advantage to them and to our
community.
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