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Margins, Middlemen, and Civilization

2/18/2015

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If you want to get a raw agricultural product to somebody who eats it, you've got two options:

1. Do the middleman's job.
2. Pay the middleman to do his job, either by writing a check or by accepting a lower price for your product.

Both have a cost. If you do the middleman's job, you're going to spend time, money, and focus on something other than farming.

Or, you can let the middleman do his job - that place where he spends his time, money, and focus.

And that can be an opportunity for both of you to prosper.

Here we have an example of civilization.

That's not to say that you should always pay the middleman, but it's worth asking and answering this question: "What value does the middleman add for my farm and for my customers,and at what cost?” If the value seems too low relative to the cost, you should ask the question: “When I take on the middleman's job, what does that really cost me?

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