Strategic Marketing Decisions for Organic Agricultural Producers

A group of organic agricultural producers facing a strategic decision is featured. If they decide to form an organization to market their produce jointly, they will have to select a distribution channel. This case presents the demand conditions, requirements, advantages, and disadvantages of different distribution channels for organic vegetables, both on a general level and as they relate to this particular group. The following channels are addressed: roadside stands, farmers' markets, distributors, retailers, restaurants, institutions, and processors. Study questions for use in an academic course or workshop are included.organic agriculture, distribution channels, strategic management, Agribusiness, Marketing,

INVENTORYING RESOURCES: AN APPLICATION TO PRODUCT-ORIENTED AGRICULTURE

Different resources are necessary in the new, product-oriented agricultural environment. This article explores the question of what information is best suited for strategic analysis and strategy formulation for firms involved in product-oriented agriculture. A new framework for inventorying agricultural resources is introduced, and suggestions for implementing it are included.Farm Management,

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: A PROPOSED THEORETICAL MODEL FOR SMALL AGRIBUSINESS FIRMS

The link between strategic planning and firm performance has been studied for over two decades. This paper examines this link, with emphasis on small agribusiness firms. A model of strategic planning and performance is developed and applied to small agribusiness firms. Implications for research and limitations are discussed.Agribusiness,

INVENTORYING RESOURCES: AN APPLICATION TO PRODUCT-ORIENTED AGRICULTURE

Different resources are necessary in the new, product-oriented agricultural environment. This article explores the question of what information is best suited for strategic analysis and strategy formulation for firms involved in product-oriented agriculture. A new framework for inventorying agricultural resources is introduced, and suggestions for implementing it are included.Farm Management,

Internal Stresses and Formation of Switchable Nanowires at Thin Silica Film Edge

At vertical edges, thin films of silicon oxide (SiO_{2-x}) contain semiconductive c-Si layered nanocrystals (Si NC) embedded in and supported by an insulating g-SiO2 matrix. Tour et al. have shown that a trenched thin film geometry enables the NC to form switchable nanowires (SNW) when trained by an applied field. The field required to form SNW decreases rapidly within a few cycles, or by annealing at 600 C in even fewer cycles, and is stable to 700C. Here we describe the intrinsic evolution of Si NC and SNW in terms of the competition between internal stresses and electro-osmosis. The analysis relies heavily on experimental data from a wide range of thin film studies, and it explains why a vertical edge across the planar Si-SiOx interface is necessary to form SNW. The discussion also shows that the formation mechanisms of Si NC and Si/SiO_{2-x} SNW are intrinsic and result from optimization of nanowire conductivity in the presence of residual host misfit stresses

Effective field theory description of halo nuclei

Nuclear halos emerge as new degrees of freedom near the neutron and proton driplines. They consist of a core and one or a few nucleons which spend most of their time in the classically-forbidden region outside the range of the interaction. Individual nucleons inside the core are thus unresolved in the halo configuration, and the low-energy effective interactions are short-range forces between the core and the valence nucleons. Similar phenomena occur in clusters of $^4$He atoms, cold atomic gases near a Feshbach resonance, and some exotic hadrons. In these weakly-bound quantum systems universal scaling laws for s-wave binding emerge that are independent of the details of the interaction. Effective field theory (EFT) exposes these correlations and permits the calculation of non-universal corrections to them due to short-distance effects, as well as the extension of these ideas to systems involving the Coulomb interaction and/or binding in higher angular-momentum channels. Halo nuclei exhibit all these features. Halo EFT, the EFT for halo nuclei, has been used to compute the properties of single-neutron, two-neutron, and single-proton halos of s-wave and p-wave type. This review summarizes these results for halo binding energies, radii, Coulomb dissociation, and radiative capture, as well as the connection of these properties to scattering parameters, thereby elucidating the universal correlations between all these observables. We also discuss how Halo EFT's encoding of the long-distance physics of halo nuclei can be used to check and extend ab initio calculations that include detailed modeling of their short-distance dynamics.Comment: 104 pages, 31 figures. Topical Review for Journal of Physics G. v2 incorporates several modifications, particularly to the Introduction, in response to referee reports. It also corrects multiple typos in the original submission. It corresponds to the published versio

DEMAND OVERVIEW FOR ORGANIC PRODUCE

The market for organic food has been growing 20% per year for the past nine years. Fruits and vegetables are a large part of the organic market, accounting for more than $670 million in retail sales annually. This presents an opportunity for entry of new agricultural producers, and the expansion of existing organic growers. Similarly to other businesses, organic producers will succeed by providing customer value. The best opportunity for organic growers to achieve this is to focus on increasing the perceived benefits of the product. Examples of benefits for organic growers to focus on are: favorable environmental impacts, positive health benefits, and positive effects on the local economy. Since the market for organic fruits and vegetables is currently small relative to the overall food market, a market segmentation strategy is advisable. Two market segments, the "True Naturals" and the "New Green Mainstream" have been identified as the core market for natural products. Marketing efforts should be focused on appealing to one (or both) of these groups. Six major marketing channels were considered, with positive aspects and barriers/potential pitfalls given for each. The two easiest channels to enter, in terms of lowest financial capital and networking requirements, are farm markets (on-site) and farmers' markets. These alternatives may have limited volume potential, however. The upside of marketing to distributors, retailers, and restaurants is the potential to market a substantially larger volume than would be possible through marketing direct to consumers. Significant barriers must be overcome to market to these more complex buyers, however. The best way to enter these channels (i.e., distributors, retailers, and restaurants) is for growers to pool resources and work together as a group.Demand and Price Analysis,

SEGMENTATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF AGRI-FOOD NICHE MARKETS: EXAMPLES FROM THE LITERATURE

ABSTRACT Niche marketing has recently received a great deal of attention in the agri-food trade press and in academic circles as a legitimate strategy for small- and medium-sized agri-food firms. Due to the limited theoretical treatment of agri-food niche marketing strategy, the paper will apply marketing concepts from the general management literature (e.g., Porter; Linneman and Stanton) to agri-food industries. The first objective of the paper is to introduce the three elements of niche marketing strategies and show how these elements can be used to form a strategy identification matrix. The matrix is intended to be used by agribusiness decision makers to assist in the development of niche marketing strategies. The second objective is to provide examples of successful niche marketing strategies that have appeared in the literature related to agricultural markets. More than forty such examples have been identified and collected. These case studies will be analyzed, and their relationship to the niche strategy matrix will be examined.Marketing,

Gust alleviation system to improve ride comfort of light airplanes

System consists of movable auxiliary aerodynamic sensors mounted on fuselage and connected to trailing-edge flaps by rigid mechanical linkages. System achieves alleviation by reducing lift-curve slope of airplane to such a small value that gust-induced angles of attack will result in small changes in lift

The Extended Methanol Maser Emission in W51

The European VLBI Network (EVN) has been used to make phase referenced, wide-field (several arcminute) spectral line observations of the 6.7-GHz methanol maser emission towards W51. In the W51main region, the bulk of the methanol is offset from an UCHII region. This probably indicates the methanol emission arises at the interface of the expanding UCHII region and not from an edge-on circumstellar disc, as previously suggested. Near the W51 IRS2 region, the methanol emission is associated with a very compact, extremely embedded source supporting the hypothesis that methanol masers trace the earliest stages of massive star formation. As well as these two previously well studied sites of star formation, many previously unknown regions star formation are detected, demonstrating that methanol masers are powerful means of detection young massive stars.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure