Meat + Poultry - January 2004 - 63

systems.

value they were willing to purchase.
The disconnect came when the
market waned, causing a rift in the
system. The retailer doesn't want
meat that is too costly to sell and the
marketer can't find a buyer for the
product. Instead of communicating
down the chain, the marketer just
stopped buying.
Stronger communication is necessary when working to maneuver
through an inconsistent market.
When the consumer isn't ready to
pay for the product, the marketer
needs to pass that information
back quickly or the system breaks
down.
"In the end, we are all at
the mercy of the final marketer,"
Forkner says. "The man that sells the
product last ends up being in the
driver's seat."
Trust is important at all links in
the system or it isn't cohesive. Maury
Bredahl, chair of the University of
Guelph Agricultural Economics and
Business department in Ontario,

Everett Forkner, a swine seedstock
producer from Richards, Mo., says he
believes in the food system approach.

Canada, offers this formula.
"What I tell people is (trust builds
when) you create value for somebody else that creates value for you,"
says Bredahl, who was a featured
speaker at a national value-chain
conference in Toronto last June,
focusing most of his comments on
the United States. "That protects the
market from imitators."
That means the producer can't
be undercut by a marketer going
with a cheaper product and means a
marketer can't be undercut by a competitor selling a similar but cheaper
or better product. It has to be a
win-win.
Forkner believes in the system
approach, even if it hasn't performed
as expected in the early stages. "I
think the concept is very real, and the
opportunities will come and are coming," he says. "It will be for those
who have made the preparation and
laid the foundation to be able to
seize the opportunity.
"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has
come," says Forkner, paraphrasing
Victor Hugo.

Initiative
Nancy Coleman got an idea while
shopping in a Denver natural-food
store in 1979. She noticed it didn't
offer beef. Knowing that her fatherin-law, Mel, raised his cattle naturally,
she said that he should consider the
natural market for his cattle.
Mel Coleman was a fourthgeneration commercial rancher but
had seen beef consumption decrease
and his profits plummet. He went for
it despite likely backlash from both
the beef industry and the traditionally vegetarian health-food industry.
"In the beginning, there were
no early signs (of success)," says Mel
Coleman Jr., Mel Coleman's son and
chairman of Coleman Natural Meats.
Coleman Sr. died in February 2002.

"It was just an idea that we felt good
about, and we stuck with it."
After striking out in his home
state, Coleman Sr. flew to Los Angeles
and opened the Yellow Pages. Not
unlike most ranchers, he had very little prior direct communication with
retailers, so he had to forge relationships while also selling them on the
idea. Retailers came on slowly as the
demand for natural beef grew, but
word of mouth within the retail industry and fortunate timing for Coleman's cold calls paid off.
By 1984, Coleman Natural Meats
expanded to include other ranchers
through the Coleman Certified
Rancher and Feedlot program. The
company expanded down the chain,
as well, and now performs 100 percent of the slaughter and fabrication
of its meat products.
Communication remains strong
with the retailers in the program.
The company's pioneering work has
placed its brand in 1,500 stores
nationwide, including natural-food

Mel Coleman Jr., chairman of Coleman
Natural Meats of Denver, captains a
business that had to wait for a market.

JANUARY 2004

FOOD SYSTEMS

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FSI

Meat + Poultry - January 2004

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