Value-Added Production
Examples of this pattern in action:
Value-added seafood products
Skeena Wild has pioneered a selective gillnet fishery on the Skeena River. The company nets sockeye, catching the fish by the jawbone, not the gills, and lands them live. The fish are then bled and dressed live, making them the highest quality sockeye available anywhere. The method allows them to catch fewer fish, release any by-catch like coho and steelhead without injury, and earn three times the going rate for the fish they land because of their focus on quality, not volume. It's through the kind of ingenuity and care demonstrated by Skeena Wild that we can maintain and restore ecosystem health. Ecotrust Canada is working with Skeena Wild to create policy and market openings for their selectively caught, highest quality wild fish.
Timbre Tonewood
Timbre Tonewood, based in Ucluelet, British Columbia and making spruce and cedar guitar tops, carefully evaluates every piece of wood which comes through its mill. Based on their appearance, the dried planks are sorted into nine different grades, ranging from the low-end tops, which will probably be painted, to the very best — distinguished by their creamy color, their even ring pattern, and rays running across the grain. These top-quality tops bring Tonewood US$40 and are used in $3,000 instruments. Their by-products feed the local economy as well. A local box-maker uses for smoked salmon some of the pieces that are too small or irregular to be made into guitars. Another local entrepreneur blends the sawdust from the operation with shrimp shells to make compost.
Organizations whose work incorporate this pattern:
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Patagonia
Real Goods
Organicare, Inc.
The Joinery
References:
Brownson, J.M. Jamil. In Cold Margins: Sustainable Development in Northern Bioregions. Northern Rim Press. Missoula, MT. 1995.
Morris, David. The New City-States. Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Washington, DC. 1982.
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