The Good Food Merchants Guild

Last week be touched on the nature of what I call "fauxtisanal" production and the issue of La Boulange bakery in SF, going national with their buy-out from Starbucks, in the latters hope of improving their stagnant pastry program (and sales in prepared foods). In one of the final notes on the post, I made mention to the issue of defining the parameters by which something can be measured as "artisan" versus not, and left it to the "walks like a duck talks like a duck parameter". 

 The Good Food Merchants Guild is one such organization that seeks to be both a promoter and an independent regulator of what constitutes "artisanal" food production. The terms are pretty good -- for a specific fee, they will help promote your business as well as supply assistance for getting the business off the ground, put you in contact with collaborators, and depending on the size be able to help you "move up" the chain of the market. (See, even us hippies are, at heart, market-driven.) Brought to us by Seedling projects, the same folks who do the Good Food Awards, the project can act as a trade union, marketing board, and incubator all in one -- all whilst still promoting the essential need for standards in a food marketplace overrun by "heirloom brownies" and "artisan cupcakes". (And yes, I will continue my cupcake disdain until such a time as someone can show me a good one.) 

Such regimes obviously put a great amount of trust in the founding organization and the integrity of the board; that said the projects put on by Seedling in the past have done very well at vetting their vendors and participants and have a very good vision about the type of food system they are attempting to construct. (Full disclosure: when working for Barefoot Coffee Roasters in San Jose, CA, we participated and interacted with The Good Food Awards. It was an awesome experience and they definitely fielded a good selection of judges and the systems they utilized were not too far from those I would wish to use myself.) Ultimately, groups like this, in conjunction with other institutional players such as incubators and shared marketplaces can be essential to growing businesses, and especially in helping those that understand the spirit also understand the requirements and follow through of those particular values.