[mgaunard]

You're presumably in America, where they essentially have two kinds of produce: cheap and expensive. Not too much of a middle ground there.

If you produce the former, the shop will purchase large amounts and distribute them to a large audience. You couldn't possibly sell that quantity yourself. The value added is obvious, and their margin is relatively low anyway.

If you produce the latter, the shop will be taking higher margins, but they're much more involved in marketing your product, since they're taking a risk by associating it with their upper-class lifestyle brand. Again clear value added.

[mcv]

Best price for the farmer is always to sell it themselves, but you can only sell a limited amount that way. In Netherland, some smaller farms have a little stall outside where they sell their produce. It's very cheap and fresh for the customer, and the farmer gets a much better price. But the total amount they're selling that way is never going to be big. I suspect it's just a nice bonus to them.

My brother in law has cows, and he recently switched to producing organic milk. That gets him a much better price, and he also recently started making his own cheese and grow his own grain. I love the diversification and we buy directly from him, but his reach is more limited than when he just has Campina pick up all his milk (which still happens).

[randomdata]

> they essentially have two kinds of produce: cheap and expensive. Not too much of a middle ground there.

In fact, there is middle ground as the least expensive product goes for animal feed. The middle ground is the lesser quality, but still high enough quality, product that human consumers are still willing to purchase.

You, of course, set out to grow the highest quality product you can – it fetches the highest value, after all – but Mother Nature often has other plans.