Sustainable Horticulture

Sustainable Hort Focus Moves to Plant Technology & Food

Posted by sustainable_hort on August 14, 2012  |  12 Comments

All right, one more try…
The late Richard Holbrooke gave an essential piece of advice for a question-driven life: Know something about something. Don’t just present your wonderful self to the world. Constantly amass knowledge and offer it around. It seems that fits the definition of a blog, at least a useful blog. I don’t what percentage of blogs are actually useful to the readers, but I bet it is a small number.

If this is not your first visit here, you know I have made several false starts at this blog. My first idea, and the one most developed when I started, concentrated on the nursery industry. But, the plant industry collapsed along with housing and commercial construction, as new landscapes disappeared like Missouri corn in this summer’s heat.

The 2008-09 economic collapse also buried my fledgling business…Sustainable Hort LLC. Again it had focused on the nursery industry and its slow move toward more sustainable production practices. But, there were fewer and fewer nurseries, as first the more poorly run operations went under, followed by well-run operations that developed cash flow problems. Now, even excellent growers with little debt are facing a demand landscape (pun intended) that has shrunk dramatically, with little positive in the economic situation to look forward to over the next few years. Making substantial production changes was the furthest thing from the grower’s mind.

As I watched the collapse, I made a decision…”people gotta eat”…and I returned to my horticultural roots and started a local, sustainable produce farm, using skills and knowledge from my Oregon State University Horticulture degree. Our first year, 2009, was great; the next two years were miserable, with last year’s spring being one of the coldest, wettest in history, followed by a record cool summer. But, we survived and are looking at our best year ever. (If you want to follow the farm and its activities, check our other blog at www.19thStreetfarms.com)

Last year, I also took over managing my hometown’s (West Linn, Oregon) farmers market, where our farm is in its fourth year of being a vendor. This dual role puts me in the middle of our localvore movement. As we continue to experiment on both the farm and in the home research garden, we also put our extensive marketing skills to work to find and create customers. Again, much of that is discussed on our farm site.

Recent USDA statistics show that the “small” farms are making a slight comeback, with farmers markets identified as a key marketing channel for their crops. Meanwhile, more safety issues with industrial ag products surfaced, more books appeared questioning how food is produced, both plants and animals products, and alternatives are appearing as part of a diverse “urban homesteading” movement. (Watch for blog for reviews on recent books on homesteading).

This is becoming more of a mainstream movement, both in who buys the alternative products and who makes them. We see more concern, activism, and even a new farmer generation, in younger adults. Newer forms of agriculture and horticulture are being explored, from intensive, urban mini-farms to green roofs being developed as greenhouse food productions system.

Plus, we see the world food system getting shaky as drought is turning the US Midwest into a new Dust Bowl, Russia is struggling with its wheat crop, and India is battling crop-destroying monsoons. A preview came in July with the food price index climbing 6%, with the grains category up 17%. All this before the drought’s real effects are felt.

All this is going to change our relation to food, how and where it is grown, what it costs, and maybe even the availability of more exotic items. This blog will follow all those activities that mark those changes, note the alternative that are working, or not, and use my personal, hands-on experience to offer a grounded, but contrasting view of the world of food.

Food Choices…Ours or Theirs?

Posted by sustainable_hort on March 2, 2011  |  No Comments

Why do we eat what we eat? How do we make our food decisions? Or, more important, who else is “helping” us make those food choices?

As consumers of food, we really need to understand how we got to our present food system from the marketing side, the forces that created our weak, subliminal attachment to food. Read these books and then walk down the aisles of your local supermarket (not around the outside where most of simpler foods are displayed). Take a few minutes and read the ingredients in most of the processed “foods.” I can promise you will never see food the same again.

In her fascinating look at the forces that created our present relationship with food, Kitchen Literacy, written by Ann Vileisis, the scientific, cultural and marketing forces that took us from a hands-on existence with food (unless you had servants or slaves) to one that is carefully controlled by today’s mega-food companies. She examines the arc from eating only seasonal and/or stored foods to the current supermarket cornucopia of “foods,” with their emphasis on calorie count while being made from a long list of industrial “ingredients.” I will take an in-depth look at this book on my blog at www.19thstreetfarms.com in the next couple weeks.

A complementary work is The End of Overeating by David Kessler, MD. He approaches from a different direction, looking at exactly how major food companies have developed foods that appeal to us. Their clever combinations of “fat, sugar & salt” have obviously worked. Just walk down the aisles in any major grocery store and they are there. Thousands and thousands of prepared foods, convenient to use, calorie rich, and seemingly less expensive. After reading this book, I cannot look at any food, commercial or not, without looking at how it matched up to that wonderful marketing triad. Kessler’s sub-title sums up his aim…”taking control of the insatiable American appetite.” Eating can continue to be a sensuous, satisfying, social activity, but based more on simple, seasonal foods prepared at home. The last section of the book explains techniques and strategies to regain our real appetites

While the first two books focused on the whys of what we eat, another new release, The Safe Food Handbook, concentrates on avoiding common contamination issues with food. The food industry has had to deal with numerous food-related outbreaks over the past few years…spinach, sprouts, meat, etc., etc. This has lead to an increased concern about food safety. Author Dr. Heli Perrett’s handbook gives a concise, easy-to-use format for consumers needing an overview of the issues, common problems and, most important, solutions and methods to avoid contamination and illness. It does not cover much new ground. Books like Marion Nestle’s Food Safety and What to Eat cover this area in more depth, with extensive historical background. But, for the average consumer, The Safe Food Handbook provides the crucial information needed to avoid getting sick from common foods.

The first two books can help us eat better but will not solve the upcoming issue…rising food prices. A perfect storm of bad weather, increasing demand from new economies and now the Middle East turmoil threatens to drive up all agricultural production inputs. With most food production and transportation being petroleum-based, so as gas prices break $4.00/gallon, food prices can only follow. And, food has been one of the driving forces in the Middle East uprisings. In fact, some say the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, protesting the confiscation of his fruit stand, really triggered these series of falling dominos as “the people” speak up in country after country.

Meanwhile, the whole world will begin to deal with the cost of food, the availability of food, and should develop alternative plans for feeding people as the current system moves toward serious problems. More on this in an upcoming blog.

Monrovia Falters…Industry Feels the Tremors

Posted by sustainable_hort on February 2, 2011  |  No Comments

Monrovia’s recent sales woes may indicate that a new marketing message is needed to revive a shell-shocked consumer.

I now look back at my years working for the Oregon nursery industry and realize it may have been a Golden Age for wholesale plant growers. The state’s sales skyrocketed over several decades from few hundred million to nearly one billion. Then it all collapsed. As the housing market dropped, so did landscape plant sales. Then, almost all commercial work stopped abruptly. Architectural firms shrank over night. This ripple hit the plant industry, especially the growers, and we have seen numerous growers go under or move into other horticultural crops. Sales this spring will probably improve slightly, but not enough to save many growers.

Monrovia has represented the peak of nursery industry production and marketing. Yet, like any industrial designed production systems, the operating costs are substantial. The company created new plants, led the “branding” effort (a marketing strategy that I always thought was over-sold), and used the garden centers to provide an effective distribution/sales platform. Now, with sales down drastically again, the company has been forced (by the banks) start selling “non-branded” plants to Home Depot to force sales. This obviously undercuts a basic part of their marketing/branding strategy of selling only to the independent garden centers. It has also created some severe comments from their customers.

But, it is not all their fault. All the quality products and clever marketing cannot “create” markets if there is, in this case, very little building going on. Add to this the panicked consumer…a one-two punch that has not just Monrovia but an entire industry on the ropes.

There are a few bright spots. Some narrow niche producers are keeping their sales at least even. Greenhouse operations that concentrate on annuals and especially vegetables are surviving. There was actually shortage last year of organic vegetable starts. Food costs, food safety concerns and a desire for better taste/nutrition are all driving this home garden trend. (See the next post on the urban homesteading movement.) A complimentary trend uses permaculture techniques to add native plants and create more plant diversity to draw beneficial wildlife.

But, the more general ornamental plant growers will need another marketing hook to push up sales. I propose turning to the strength of plants to provide a better, less polluting environment and lower energy use. I like to call the many uses of plants to improve our water and air a new “plant technology.” Sell plants because they provide solutions, not because they “decorate” our world. It is an old idea really. There is adequate research and successful examples to get consumers to look at plants, not as a “discretionary” expense, but necessary to improve one’s home and life. This “message” will sell better in the new consumer economy, one that is moving away from the wild spending of the last two decades.

New Opportunities in Sustainable Landscapes

Posted by sustainable_hort on January 30, 2010  |  1 Comment

This article appeared in the Oregon Landscape Contractor’s magazine. It is related to my last post that discussed how growers, retailers and landscapers might take advantage of new “green” trends and technologies. This focuses on how “Sustainable Development Offers New Opportunities for Landscape Contractors.”
And…thanks for your many positive comments on my content. Much more to come.

Many major developers are ‘going green,’ not just for good public relations, but also as an economically beneficial strategy. Innovative landscape firms have a tremendous opportunity to join this effort, position themselves as “green,” and dramatically increase their business.
“These are not little changes, but this is a sea change,” explained landscape architect Paul Morris, speaking at the annual meeting of Oregon Landscape Contractor Association in December. By 2010, industry studies predict a $19 to 38 billion in the residential green building market, he said.
Morris works on planning and sustainable issues for Cherokee Investment Services, Inc., an international development firm. He said that his company has long recognized the many benefits of incorporating sustainable technologies into their projects.
“These are no longer just warm-fuzzy things we’d like to do,” said Morris. “There are calculable benefit costs that can now be identified.”
In fact, his company, with $2 billion in assets, is the leading private investment firm in “brown field” development, working on abandoned and idle industrial and commercial urban sites often with environmental degradation and contamination, distinguished from “green fields,” undeveloped land outside urban areas. It plans to spend $250,000,000 on remediation projects, he said.

Going Green – Point Tipped

Posted by sustainable_hort on January 29, 2010  |  4 Comments

This is an article I wrote several years ago, but with a few minor changes, it still applies to the nursery and landscape industries…maybe even more with the downturn in sales. The green industry needs to market its “greenness!”

Point Tipped…Going Green
By Miles McCoy

Even that wild-eyed, business-entertainer Jim Cramer has gone green.
It was a big turning point for the popular investment show host. He had long discouraged any investment in “green” companies because they did not have a sound financial underpinning.
That changed with recent Supreme Court decision…a true tipping point. (more on that later) The Supreme Court’s decision essentially changed the pollution playing field by declaring that carbon dioxide is a “pollutant.” It thus falls under the Clean Air Act and can be regulated by both the EPA and states. A Business Week’s article stated, “The door is now open for new lawsuits against companies that emit carbon dioxide.”
Strong stuff, but seemingly not unanticipated within the US or world business communities.
In fact, a former chief economist at the World Bank, Sir Nicholas Stern, recently wrote in a Business Week column (4/16/07 – p. 90), “reducing carbon emissions is a pro-growth strategy, not an economic burden.” There is more evidence as companies as diverse as Goldman Sacs and Wal-Mart have announced major “green” efforts within their structure.
This change continues to be driven more by consumers and popular media. Vanity Fair just presented it second annual “green” issue, while a recent Newsweek cover features California’s green governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. A week earlier, the magazine’s “Tip Sheet” gave readers advice on creating a “greener garden,” with facts on native plants (another topic!), saving water, composting, mulching, and organic pest/weed control. A recent New York Times article on organic lawn care asked “are bugs the pests, or humans?!” Consumers are speaking at the cash register, demanding safe, natural products to care for their landscapes. More on that in a minute.
Meanwhile, green buildings are all the rage, with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification now crucial, and even mandated, for new construction. While much of the green technology has little to do with our industry, we are seeing a greening of our roofs. These roofs are sold as offering environmental solutions. They may only develop a minor, niche for growers, but their concept of marketing may give the overall green industry some viable advertising themes.
For instance, should we encourage homeowners to include landscapes that handle the run-off from their home and driveways? Green roof activity is often driven by storm-water runoff control, using the roof’s plants and soil to hold back large rain events. Portland has gained a national reputation for creating what an Oregonian editorial recently described as our “greener, gentler streets,” where run-off swales are actually built into the streets. So, maybe the industry can promote ponds and swales with their water-loving plants; or pervious driveways that use tough, low-growing plant choices. New environmental options will often require our plants.

Green Metropolis…Portland or New York?

Posted by sustainable_hort on January 18, 2010  |  1 Comment

Below is a response to some comments on Linkin on Portland, Oregon, being selected the “Greenest” US city in a survey by Popular Science magazine.

For a counter view I encourage everyone to read “Green Metropolis” by David Owen. The basic thesis is explained in the sub-title…”Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability.” It argues, in a sense, that vertical cities like New York are ultimately greener than a city like Portland, which is still very auto dependent.  Using the per capita energy stats, he first explains the distinct advantage urban dwellers, especially those without cars, can claim. Then, by also by living closer to work and most of what they do, urban citizens move through their daily lives requiring much less energy. The use of public transportation only increases the difference. Finally, the diminished use of autos has such a dramatic impact, it makes “green” suburbs basically impossible.

I live in Portland and like to think of us being green here, but Owen makes some significant sustainable points. A book that deserves wider attention. But, I still like Portland and the region as one version of the sustainable experiment.

Marketing is Part of Sustainability

Posted by sustainable_hort on December 23, 2009  |  3 Comments

Portland, Oregon…The recent Oregonian story (12/20/2009), front page of the business section, told the world what the industry already knew…this is the worst of times. The stark reality was clearly shown in the graph of nursery sales in Oregon that accompanied the text.  Sales have dropped from nearly one billion in 2007 to this year’s projection of less than 700 million. The future outlook is for more of the same with any real turn around probably several years off.

We believe the winners during this challenging paradigm shift will be those that continue to market. Cut production, then costs, and lastly employees, but keep reaching out to both current customers and searching for new ones. There will be fewer players, and marketing remains a key to being a survivor.

Sustainable Hort LLC is also a marketing firm.  We offer a wide range of marketing services, from advertising to blogs, from catalogs to video. And, over the next few months, I will be adding some basic marketing information to this site to help nurseries consider their options and make concise, efficient decisions. It will be free for your use. Just don’t give up on marketing!

Another option…take or send staff to this winter’s Horticultural Marketing class (HOR257) offered by Chemekta Community College, Salem, Oregon. This Monday night session, 6 – 9 pm, is at the horticultural classrooms (#62-101) on the Salem campus. This class offers a cost effective, “fast start” to marketing efficiently. We will cover every aspect of marketing, starting with defining marketing, through numerous strategies and technologies, to evaluating what works with different segments and products. We know how to grow plants, but sometimes not how to market and sell them.  For more information, contact the registration office at http://www.chemeketa.edu/started/register.html.; or start with the general college site at http://www.chemeketa.edu.