Sunday, October 21, 2012

New Market - what everyone actually wants

If Wisconsin’s corn crop came in at about 50 bushels per acre on a good year, and our dairy farmers just milked their cull and sick cows after selling off their best milkers for hamburger – these would be huge stories today and this would not be accepted and tolerated.

Wisconsin actually has a more abundant crop that is managed exactly this way – yet almost nobody knows or cares….

Our ten million acres of privately owned timber grows at 25% of its potential in volume and value every year – because our forest owners have indeed sold off their good trees just leaving the cull trees to grow for the future!  Just ask any forest owner – they know what really happens in the woods.  Don’t ask a professional forester – they are so deep in the phony forestry, they won’t say a word of truth, but will likely spin a story of sustainable forestry that in reality only props up their job with little benefit to the forest or the timber grower.

The reason this problem persists is there has not been an alternative to the industrial forestry that has dominated the land for the last 150 years.  Everyone makes the best of a bad situation as it has been better than nothing.

Now – there is a much better choice for everyone and the forest.  There is a new way – just the opposite of what has been business as usual in the forest.

Forest owners around the world are learning to take control of their resources, perform a small annual harvest, make some high value wood products and sell direct to customers – eliminating all the middlemen and brokers – earning a fair price for their trees for the first time in history.  Valuing the forest for future income encourages wise long term management of the forest for the first time in history.  This is what every forest owner and every professional forester actually wants – they just never knew it was possible in the past.  Now just the effort required to bring about change is blocking much movement, but one family business keeps striving to break up the logjams of tradition and inertia.

Wisconsin’s forestry professionals refuse to acknowledge that there is an alternative to the industrial forestry that supports their jobs, but the Timber Growers business model is recognized around the world by the United Nations and other groups as the leading marketing innovation in the global timber industry today.  Timber Growers has been invited as a featured speaker at the World Teak Conference in Bangkok in March 2013 and the United Nations International Conference on Wood in S Africa next October.  Past international conference presentations have been made in India, Viet Nam, New Zealand and Timber Growers is currently participating in marketing programs in Ecuador and Brazil
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Sunday, May 27, 2012

No Robots were used to make this product

Hand Made – No Robots were used in the production of this product

Everyone is talking about the shortage of good jobs.  Buy American and Buy Local are a good start, but to really support good jobs, look closer.
Even in our factories here, robots and huge machines have replaced hundreds of thousands of workers.  One big corporation now shows a TV advertisement featuring a line of robots working to make a car that can even fix itself when one robot breaks – no people are seen or needed anymore.  The company slogan in the ad is “for the human network”.    How Stupid Can We Get?? 

We all buy stuff now built primarily by robots and huge machines that have put masses of people out of work.  Then we complain about jobs and the economy.

We need to Choose to;
Buy as Local as Possible
Buy from As Small A Business as Possible
Buy as Hand Made as Possible
Buy the Best Value for the Future of the Planet



We control the economy and jobs by what we buy everyday.   We are all responsible for our current situation and only we can change our future.
Buying Smart in the new Global Economy should be our top priority.  We need to do just the opposite of what got us into this mess.

Anyone who buys imported stuff in the big corporation’s store is actively exporting your money and our jobs.  You are building businesses and countries and jobs on the other side of the world.  Workers there are buying cars, and their growing factories using more fossil fuels – all driving up the cost of our fuel at our local gas stations.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Forests create new jobs in the community

A forest should support the local community with building materials, many other products, a regular income, and good jobs.  This is kind of an old fashioned idea that has been lost the past 200 years due to global industrialization.   The industrial timber market with low commodity log prices continues to consume the remaining good timber on the planet, with few benefits to the local community, despite all the talk about sustainability and certification.

But every person who cares about the planet would agree that the forest should support the local community. 

Spring Green Timber Growers has built a new high value market for the wood we harvest each year from our small family farm, creating new jobs from dead trees.  We control the whole process from growing, harvesting, sawmilling, solar kiln drying, manufacturing, and direct marketing to customers.  By eliminating all the middlemen, using the smallest amount of energy, and minimizing shipping, we earn retail prices for our timber – about 100 times the income earned by other landowners.

Wood is easy to grow and harvest and manufacture on a small scale.  Wood products have a high value in the retail market.  Wood is the perfect fuel for small business in the local community.  Everyone uses wood everywhere – everyday – so these ideas are universal.

SGTG is developing a global wood marketing system to connect local wood growers direct with customers.  First priority is to use what people have to meet the local needs of the community, then export their extra wood to population centers that need wood products. 

Local Needs – Training and coaching can quickly get a small woodshop in operation. 

Global Marketing – a new website will link the grower with customers anywhere in the world.  Simple shipping of small packages to container loads is ongoing every day now.  Credit card payments online make payments easily.  Instant communication and global travel now connect people everywhere. 

The “American Dream” has gone global.  Anyone, Anywhere can run a small business to sell something that they make.  The only limitation is the imagination.