assignment # 3

1.)You ask “ what do you think Americans should be eating?” The answer is quite simple really. Or rally, what would be easier is saying what Americans should not be eating., and that is food stuffed full of preservatives, that comes out of cans and boxes. Food that is soo colored and artificially flavored that it only resembles the real thing. And of course, Americans should not be relying on fast food restaurants to feed them regularly, or really ever. I'm not going to go in to what I think Americans should be eating item by item for each meal of the day, but nor do I think that is the point. I think the question is asking in a broader sense. So simply put, America would be a much healthier country if people consumed more whole, and prepared meals. Really, dinnertime has been lost in this country, and they need to det it back. For me growing up, I was pretty much the only kid who had a regular dinnertime, where even if it was just my mother and, I was always at the dinner table to enjoy a healthy cooked meal no matter what. It always entailed a main course, a fresh baguette, and salad, and company. That is something that seems totally lost in this country. Dinnertime is disenfranchised and it's every man for himself. Often kids are left with money and sent to fend for themselves for luch and dinner, and of course most of the time will not make the right choices.Of course I think Americans should be eating organically grown foods as well, and avoid products with GMO's, but at this point I think that's almost too much to ask. We need to bring dinner back to the dinner table first. People need to be re-educated on how to feed themselves and how to prepare meals that really aren't that difficult and are nourishing. People need to be eating fresh prepared foods, and not itmes out of the canned or frozen food section, or out of the phonebook.

2.) “can cooperation succeed as a business model in the United States?” I really can't see why the cooperative business model would not succeed As stated by the 2nd cooperative principle “Cooperative societies are democratic organizations..... Members of promarey societies should enjoy equal rights of voting and participation in decisions affecting their societies.” The United States is a democratic nation in which the people vote and participate in decisions affecting the whole country. So right there, the cooperative business model having a lot in common with the way this country is run would go to support that it should survive as a business model in this country. However, business is run different in this country than politics. This country is all about capitalsim and making a profit for the individual, where as the cooperative business model is something much more out of a socialist style country. It focuses on the group and and spreading the wealth rather than such a heirarchical command chain. Either way there is plenty of evidence to support that the cooperative business model can succeed in the United States, and I'll go on record as saying that I think the U.S. Would do a lot better as a whole if the entire economy were more like a cooperative. If everybody had an equal share, and a reason to care instead of the rich just getting richer and everybody else just works for them.

3.)I think the Natural Food Industry has a long and healthy future, with a slow but ever expanding share of the food industry market. Just looking at statistics, conventional food sales have been increasing at a very slow rate of about 3% annually, organic food sales has been growing at a rate of about 20% per year for more than a decade, according to estimates from the Organic Trade Association. Growth is particularly large in the field of organic milk and dairy products. USDA says that organic dairy sales went up more than 500% in the 1990's. Sales of organic milk and dairy products totaled about $600 million at during 2000, and sales of all organic foods during that year approached $9 billion. Accrding to statistics I found on the Organic Consumers Association website, organic foods are projected to be around 32 billion in 2009! So this alone shows that the future of the Natural Food Industry looks promising. I as well would expect it to be a growing market as well. Of course as generations pass, you're going to have an ever growing number of kids, like myself who were raised on Organic foods, and in turn will be rasing their children on it, so that will account for some growth. But also, especially in places like Los Angeles where I lived for a number of years, I can see (and in a sense do see) “Organic” food becoming a very trendy thing, much like sushi did. At what point did all these uber wealthy socialites start liking raw fish, I don't know, but one thing is for sure and that is that there is no shortage of sushi bars in Hollywood, and they are all packed. I think Natural foods is making the same sort of impact, where it is becoming cool to shop at Whole foods or wild oats. At least it felt that way much more in L.A. Than in Portland. Regardless of what the motivations or reasons are, the natural food industry is definitely here to stay in my opinion.

4.) I think People's biggest strength, or at least it's position in the local marketplace revolves around their product selection guidelines. Sure plenty of places offer Organically grown food products, but people's goes beyond that. They try and ensure that none of their products have ever had anything to do with a genetically modified organism. They buy they produce solely from local farmers. They focus on “low-impact living,” by prioritizing bulk, organic/or local products, and limiting the nmumber of products sold in non-recyclable or energy intensive packaging.They only distribute products distributed by companies whose politics and procedures are in harmony with their mission statement and definition of sustainability. People's carries only “whole foods,” that is, fooods with a minimum of processing and refining, and they will not sell products containing artificial coloring, preservatives, and flavorings. And of course, one of their biggest positions, a member-owner decision not to carry any meat, poultry, fish and any product containing animal byproducts. They are a 100% vegetarian store.In terms of how People's should position itself in the future, that is really entirely up them, and where they acutally want to go with the business. They are a lovely food store as it stands right now, but in my humble opinion if they truly see expansion in their future they may have to open their doors a little simply to meet a broader variety of customer needs. Clearly People's can make it, as they have been around since the 70's. Obviously they have enough clientel to keep their doors open for quite some time now. But if they want a larger market share, they will have to meet the demands of a larger market share, and think about broadening what they offer just a little, and also adding a hot food deli like most natural food markets have, at least for the purpose of bringing people in.