One in Six

Oh, the beauty of the internet. Did you read today that 1 in 6 (six!) people sells or has sold goods on the internet. This is not just eBay either. This is cottage industry, springing up all over the 50 States. This is getting back to the individual entreprenuerial spirit that made this country what it is. Wow. I love it.

Thanks to the internet, farmers now have a shot at actually making a living. Let me throw out a little more Farmgirl Econ. I mentioned that we pay our pickers $0.45 a pound. If I sell that coffee as "cherry" to a local processor, he gives me $1.25 a pound. (dropping to $1.15 on December 1). So I earn $0.80 a pound for cherry. Seven pounds of cherry equals about 1 pound of roasted coffee.

So, the Kona coffee you bought at Starbucks for $39? Yep, I earned $5.60 for that. Not counting my land/fertilizer/personal labor costs.

That is NO way to make a living (and in truth, you can't at that price). So I don't make a living. That way, anyway. I control my own destiny as much as possible by skipping past the middlemen and straight to my customers. They get a better product, at a better price, and I get to do what I love and make a living at it. That is the true American Dream.

So, thank you for supporting the small farmers, businesses and entrepreneurs of this country. Thank you for using the internet.