Oscar Wong has been a beer man since the day he and a buddy caught the lusty aroma of a homemade brew from a janitor’s Pepsi bottle back at his alma mater, Notre Dame University.
“We said, ‘That ain’t Pepsi,’ ” says Wong, 71, who emigrated to the U.S. from China in 1959. That day a half-century ago, Wong started making his own beer, and a lifelong passion of making a product he says “brings smiles to people’s faces” poured forth.
Wong’s Highland Brewing is now in its 18th year in Asheville, N.C., one of many hot spots of the brewing of “craft” beer, the specialty suds heavy on flavor, experimentation and local identity. Ten other breweries have opened in Asheville since 1994. Nationally, from Sam Adams, which makes 2 million barrels a year, to Wong’s 29,000, the industry is growing robustly.
Even as U.S. beer consumption overall is flat, the craft brew market is booming, with double-digit sales growth last year. The Brewers Association says that since 2004, craft brews have doubled their market share to nearly 6%, and that 250 breweries opened last year. The 1,940 operating in 2011 were the most since the 1880s, the industry group says.
Big and small brewers alike are capitalizing on a confluence of trends in palates, cooking, economics, demographics, even politics.
The buy-local movement, coupled with a political push against big corporations, skews toward local brewers. Palates have evolved to expect choices and local flavors in cheese, coffee, bread. Why not beer?
Chefs are pushing wine and beer pairings with food and cooking more with beer. Beer industry analysts say a new generation of beer drinkers in their 20s and 30s were raised as children of choice and are less likely than their parents or grandparents to pick a Bud or Miller Lite for life. More young women are drinking beer as part of the celebrity chef, fun-dining phenomenon that focuses on social experience as much as sustenance, with great interest in the stories of the food and beverage and the people who put them together.
“Beer drinkers are much more knowledgeable than 15 years ago,” says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. “Local is a major purchase-decision point these days, so local brewers that keep money circulating in a community is where people want to put their money. And the beer drinker is starting to discover hops” the same way wine drinkers know grapes.
In 2011, the association says, a rough economy and continuing competition from wine and spirits drove overall beer consumption down by 1.3% to just under 200 million barrels. A barrel contains 31 gallons.
But consumption of craft brews, with names such as Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, or Wong’s caffeine-infused Thunderstruck Coffee Porter, was up 13%, the Brewers Association says. The group says 11.5 million barrels were made by local breweries in 2011, and breweries with an estimated 3 million barrels of capacity are being built or planned.
“Contrary to what some people are saying, we are not in a bubble,” Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian told a record 4,500 attendees at the Craft Brewers Conference in April. “We are knee-deep in foam, and the level is rising.”
Good times, bad times?
Some are more cautious, recalling a 1990s hangover from an earlier craft-brew boom.
Harry Schuhmacher, editor and publisher of Beer Business Daily, agrees with Brewers Association projections that craft brews could claim 10% of the beer market by 2017, but he cautions against an “irrational exuberance” that “brings non-brewers into the industry.”
“We could end up like we did in the late ’90s, with bad batches of beer out there, without regard for freshness or quality,” he says. “If that happens, history shows us it dampens the whole category.”
But he and other industry experts say beer distributors are far more savvy and demanding today and that beer drinkers are a lot different, too.
“Beer was a little slow to the (expanding choices) game,” says Eric Shepard, executive editor of trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights. “People just now are looking for a more flavorful, local product. Bread went that way, cheese went that way, candy, to a certain extent. The question is, how far will it go, and how will the big brewers begin to navigate it?”
Both Anheuser-Busch, which annually produces just under half the beer sold in the USA, and MillerCoors, which brews about a fourth, have jumped in. MillerCoors formed its Tenth and Blake division two years ago to make and market craft beers. Its Blue Moon has become a strong label, even if purists say it doesn’t qualify as a craft beer.
The Brewers Association defines craft beer as that made by a relatively small, local or regional brewery, producing fewer than 6 million barrels annually, and that is less than 25% owned by big brewers. That definition includes Sam Adams and its national identity but not regional beers such as Anheuser-Bush’s Chicago-based Goose Island or MillerCoors’ Leinenkugel, which is marketed as a “northwoods” beer out of Wisconsin.
“We don’t concern ourselves with what the Brewers Association defines as a craft brewer,” MillerCoors’ Peter Marino says. “We make beers for the enjoyment of consumers.”
To some, the dispute is beside the point. “Consumers define craft beer as any American-made beer that has more flavor than your average light lager,” Schuhmacher says.
Teddy Folkman, chef of Granville Moore’s, a popular Washington, D.C., restaurant centered around craft brews, agrees.
“The whole thing behind it is just a bunch of dedicated people who believe in their craft,” says Folkman, who cooks with beer and travels the country hosting beer-food pairing dinners sponsored by Ommegang. “They want to push the envelope of what people consider a normal beer or a typical beer.”
Two recent diners at his restaurant, John O’Bryan, 37, and Jennifer Douris, 32, both of Washington, D.C., spent more time looking at beer than the menu. They eventually sampled four beers from Folkman’s 70-plus craft brew offerings.
Her favorite is “Hennepin,” an Ommegang ale that she describes as “complex, but not heavy.” His favorite is “Brew Free or Die,” a heartier India Pale Ale (I.P.A.) made by San Francisco brewery 21st Amendment, named after the amendment that ended Prohibition.
O’Bryan and Douris say they like the experimentation and the friendships they’ve formed among fellow craft brew folks. They’re regulars at another craft brewery in D.C., Meridian Pint, which hosts tutorials on varieties and tastes and sponsors homebrew taste competitions.
Economic tap-out
Despite the boutique beer boom, more than half the beer in the USA is consumed by people making less than $50,000 a year, says Chris Thorne, vice president of communications for industry group the Beer Institute. They tend to drink
more
mainstream brands, and consumption has been hit hard by the economy. “There is a mistaken belief that people in poor economic times drown their sorrows in beer,” Thorne says. “It is just the other way around. A guy who may have had $50 a week to spend on beer may now have $10.”
Some see the craft boom itself as a reaction to weariness about the poor economy. “Maybe we are just tired of this recession and we are going after affordable luxuries more,” says Jennifer Litz, who covers craft brews for Beer Business Daily.
Litz, of Austin, belongs to Girls’ Pint Out, a national organization that brings women together for craft beer tastings.
“I know a lot of female hopheads, definitely,” Litz says.
Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of marketing, Paul Chibe, says that “Gen Y or Gen Xers are used to a lot more variety in food and beverage” and says beermakers are going with the trend.
“Sushi was not mainstream 25 years ago,” he says. “Now, you find it in the smallest strip malls.”
Folkman invites epicurean adventure at Granville Moore’s, where he is as likely to recommend a beer as a wine to pair with a dish. He is known for his beer-based recipes, most recently a soft-shell crab sauce combining cream, sugar and Ommegang’s “Art of Darkness” dark ale.
In April, Folkman, Ommegang and Saveur magazine hosted a “Hop Chef” competition among 20 top chefs. The winning main course used Three Philosophers, a Belgian-style ale blend, to cook ox tail and sea urchin. The winning dessert was a crème brûlée made with Witte, a Belgian-style wheat ale.
Beer — it’s what’s for dessert.
Manufacturing Reshoring, Trickle Could Turn To Flood
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamJim Vassallo | Chelsei HendersonEmployment Spectator
202 S Lake Ave, Unit 250
Pasadena, CA 91101
When Whirlpool took the decision to assemble the products at home again, “there were a lot of high fives going around, that’s for sure,” Mr. Good says.
However, this brought home only around 25 jobs. The return of some production to the US is not creating too many jobs. It has its limitations. In the case of Whirlpool, most of the components of the mixers are still made abroad. They just could not be made cheaply enough in the US.
Earlier this year the President was very appreciative of a Master Lock company he visited in Milwaukee and applauded them for bringing back some work from Asia. Master Lock’s move had created a 100 new jobs. Otis Elevator Co’s relocating production from Mexico to South Carolina will result in an additional 360 jobs. Companies like Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co. and Ford Motor Co., who have joined the bring-back-production to America bandwagon, will create a few thousand more positions.
Manufacturing employment in the US is showing signs of resurrection. The 35 percent decline between 1998 and 2010 has seen a growth of 4.3 percent and manufacturing jobs have increased by 489,000. This job-increase is owing to a buoyant economy and not because of reshoring of production.
Harry Moser, president of the Reshoring Initiative, a nonprofit campaigning to bring back manufacturing jobs, thinks that, in the past few years, at least 25,000 manufacturing and related support jobs have been brought back to the U.S. That is a miniscule number, in the colossal unemployment statistics, but Mr. Moser thinks that as more and more companies, assess that it is more feasible to manufacture within the country, the potential is enormous.
Manufacturers say that there are many reasons why they manufacture out of the US, taxes, regulations, government incentives amongst others. They say, that after their experience of manufacturing in Asia, there will be no sense in manufacturing shoes and clothing within the country.
The relocate production back to the US has become appealing to the manufactures, as the wage-gap between China and US has considerably narrowed. The drop in the US dollar has made US produced goods more competitive and increased gas prices has increase the cost of freight.
David Simchi-Levi, an engineering professor and supply-chain expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, surveyed 105 companies early this year and concluded that 39% US manufacturers were contemplating moving some manufacturing back to the U.S.
However, China and other Asian countries score above the US on many fields. Expertise and supplier networks have become so deep-rooted that they have become unshakeable. Moreover, the US lacks skilled and technically competent workers and US corporate taxes are amongst the highest in the world.
Dr. Simchi-Levi found that companies are becoming more regions centric, Asian plants serve Asian customers, North American ones serve Americans.
Not all products can be reshored. Cort Jacoby, a supply-chain expert at Hackett Group, a consulting firm said, that producers most likely to be reshored are bulky items are heavy and huge items whose transportation freight would be high, things like heavy machinery. Other things could include expensive items, for fashion aficionados, whose taste change frequently, clothing and home-accessories for the elite and items that require health monitoring, like baby products. All these, Jacoby feels, are most likely to be reshored.
Justin Rose of Boston Consulting Group has conducted an interesting study that show the wages paid to Chinese laborers and compares them with wages paid in the US. Even though the labor costs have increased, China holds the upper hand in terms of labor costs. At Whirlpool’s Greenville plant a worker on average earns about $12.40 to $16.50 per hour, plus benefits. In China, the workers earn as little as $3.40 to $3.50 per hour.
However, the gap is narrowed, as Mr. Rose estimates, those workers in US, thanks to better technology and automated machines, produces three times as much as their Chinese counterparts.
Current trends suggest that U.S. consumers could see more products labeled “Made in USA” on store shelves in the near future.
Re-Shoring: Manufacturers Make a U-Turn
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamPublished: Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Chesapeake Bay, with a factory in Glen Burnie, Md., is hardly alone in rethinking its manufacturing plans these days. More and more American firms are bringing those operations home — and while it might be a little premature to call this “re-shoring” effort a movement, it’s certainly starting to become a trend.
President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech, noted that American manufacturers created new jobs in 2011 for the first time since the late 1990s. In a recent survey by MFG.com, an online marketplace that helps businesses find manufacturers for their products, 40 percent of the manufacturing firms it polled said they had benefited from work that had previously been sourced to a supplier in another country.
“[Consumer’s] desire to customize products is become more and more ravenous,” says Mitch Free, founder of MFG.com. “In order to stay relevant, [companies] have to be able to adapt very quickly. The way you do that is being somewhat close to your market. Instead of producing a big lot overseas and shipping it [here], companies can now rapidly assemble supply chains wherever they’re selling the product. They save on logistics costs. They take advantage of the local currency. And they generate good will in the market.”
MFG isn’t the only study that has pointed to an increase in re-shoring. A survey by the Boston Consulting Group in February found more than one-third of U.S.-based manufacturing executives at companies with sales greater than $1 billion are either planning or considering bringing production back to the United States from China.”Companies are realizing that the economics of manufacturing are swinging in favor of the U.S., for goods to be sold both at home and to major export markets,” said Harold L. Sirkin, senior partner at the company. “This trend is likely to accelerate starting around 2015.”
For Chesapeake Bay, it was less a matter of customization as it was cost control.
The candle company originally based its manufacturing in China, but as anti-dumping laws (designed to prevent predatory pricing) began to impact duty rates, Chesapeake Bay took its operations to Mexico.
Unhappy with the manufacturing ecosystem there, it tried a few other countries, eventually landing in Vietnam in 2000 — a popular manufacturing hub for companies.
“The Vietnamese population is very young and it’s pretty abundant,” says Mei Xu, Chesapeake Bay’s co-founder and CEO. “The work ethics are very similar to those of the Chinese. They all want to work hard to provide a better life for their children.”
Labor costs, however, are on the rise in countries like China and Vietnam. BCG says wages in China are currently climbing at 15 to 20 percent per year, due to the demand for skilled labor. The group expects net labor costs for China and the U.S. to converge in the next three years.
Xu notes that Vietnam closely follows China’s lead on issues like salary and benefits. Today, the average salary for a manufacturing employee in the country is between $300 and $400 per month.
That’s still well below the $12.50 to $13 per hour employees in the United States can earn, but salaries only make up 20 to 30 percent of a product’s total cost according to BCG.
Other factors, meanwhile, such as shipping are seeing prices increase as well, due to rising oil prices. Xu says Chesapeake Bay noticed some shipping companies cutting back their overseas routes as well, which threatened the company’s turnaround time.
That speed to market is more critical today than ever as companies keep lower inventories on hand as a precautionary measure.
Craft Beers Brew Up Booming Business Across USA
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamMay 25, 2012
Wong’s Highland Brewing is now in its 18th year in Asheville, N.C., one of many hot spots of the brewing of “craft” beer, the specialty suds heavy on flavor, experimentation and local identity. Ten other breweries have opened in Asheville since 1994. Nationally, from Sam Adams, which makes 2 million barrels a year, to Wong’s 29,000, the industry is growing robustly.
Even as U.S. beer consumption overall is flat, the craft brew market is booming, with double-digit sales growth last year. The Brewers Association says that since 2004, craft brews have doubled their market share to nearly 6%, and that 250 breweries opened last year. The 1,940 operating in 2011 were the most since the 1880s, the industry group says.
Big and small brewers alike are capitalizing on a confluence of trends in palates, cooking, economics, demographics, even politics.
The buy-local movement, coupled with a political push against big corporations, skews toward local brewers. Palates have evolved to expect choices and local flavors in cheese, coffee, bread. Why not beer?
Chefs are pushing wine and beer pairings with food and cooking more with beer. Beer industry analysts say a new generation of beer drinkers in their 20s and 30s were raised as children of choice and are less likely than their parents or grandparents to pick a Bud or Miller Lite for life. More young women are drinking beer as part of the celebrity chef, fun-dining phenomenon that focuses on social experience as much as sustenance, with great interest in the stories of the food and beverage and the people who put them together.
“Beer drinkers are much more knowledgeable than 15 years ago,” says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. “Local is a major purchase-decision point these days, so local brewers that keep money circulating in a community is where people want to put their money. And the beer drinker is starting to discover hops” the same way wine drinkers know grapes.
In 2011, the association says, a rough economy and continuing competition from wine and spirits drove overall beer consumption down by 1.3% to just under 200 million barrels. A barrel contains 31 gallons.
But consumption of craft brews, with names such as Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, or Wong’s caffeine-infused Thunderstruck Coffee Porter, was up 13%, the Brewers Association says. The group says 11.5 million barrels were made by local breweries in 2011, and breweries with an estimated 3 million barrels of capacity are being built or planned.
“Contrary to what some people are saying, we are not in a bubble,” Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian told a record 4,500 attendees at the Craft Brewers Conference in April. “We are knee-deep in foam, and the level is rising.”
Good times, bad times?
Some are more cautious, recalling a 1990s hangover from an earlier craft-brew boom.
Harry Schuhmacher, editor and publisher of Beer Business Daily, agrees with Brewers Association projections that craft brews could claim 10% of the beer market by 2017, but he cautions against an “irrational exuberance” that “brings non-brewers into the industry.”
“We could end up like we did in the late ’90s, with bad batches of beer out there, without regard for freshness or quality,” he says. “If that happens, history shows us it dampens the whole category.”
But he and other industry experts say beer distributors are far more savvy and demanding today and that beer drinkers are a lot different, too.
“Beer was a little slow to the (expanding choices) game,” says Eric Shepard, executive editor of trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights. “People just now are looking for a more flavorful, local product. Bread went that way, cheese went that way, candy, to a certain extent. The question is, how far will it go, and how will the big brewers begin to navigate it?”
Both Anheuser-Busch, which annually produces just under half the beer sold in the USA, and MillerCoors, which brews about a fourth, have jumped in. MillerCoors formed its Tenth and Blake division two years ago to make and market craft beers. Its Blue Moon has become a strong label, even if purists say it doesn’t qualify as a craft beer.
The Brewers Association defines craft beer as that made by a relatively small, local or regional brewery, producing fewer than 6 million barrels annually, and that is less than 25% owned by big brewers. That definition includes Sam Adams and its national identity but not regional beers such as Anheuser-Bush’s Chicago-based Goose Island or MillerCoors’ Leinenkugel, which is marketed as a “northwoods” beer out of Wisconsin.
“We don’t concern ourselves with what the Brewers Association defines as a craft brewer,” MillerCoors’ Peter Marino says. “We make beers for the enjoyment of consumers.”
To some, the dispute is beside the point. “Consumers define craft beer as any American-made beer that has more flavor than your average light lager,” Schuhmacher says.
Teddy Folkman, chef of Granville Moore’s, a popular Washington, D.C., restaurant centered around craft brews, agrees.
“The whole thing behind it is just a bunch of dedicated people who believe in their craft,” says Folkman, who cooks with beer and travels the country hosting beer-food pairing dinners sponsored by Ommegang. “They want to push the envelope of what people consider a normal beer or a typical beer.”
Two recent diners at his restaurant, John O’Bryan, 37, and Jennifer Douris, 32, both of Washington, D.C., spent more time looking at beer than the menu. They eventually sampled four beers from Folkman’s 70-plus craft brew offerings.
Her favorite is “Hennepin,” an Ommegang ale that she describes as “complex, but not heavy.” His favorite is “Brew Free or Die,” a heartier India Pale Ale (I.P.A.) made by San Francisco brewery 21st Amendment, named after the amendment that ended Prohibition.
O’Bryan and Douris say they like the experimentation and the friendships they’ve formed among fellow craft brew folks. They’re regulars at another craft brewery in D.C., Meridian Pint, which hosts tutorials on varieties and tastes and sponsors homebrew taste competitions.
Economic tap-out
Despite the boutique beer boom, more than half the beer in the USA is consumed by people making less than $50,000 a year, says Chris Thorne, vice president of communications for industry group the Beer Institute. They tend to drink
more
mainstream brands, and consumption has been hit hard by the economy. “There is a mistaken belief that people in poor economic times drown their sorrows in beer,” Thorne says. “It is just the other way around. A guy who may have had $50 a week to spend on beer may now have $10.”
Some see the craft boom itself as a reaction to weariness about the poor economy. “Maybe we are just tired of this recession and we are going after affordable luxuries more,” says Jennifer Litz, who covers craft brews for Beer Business Daily.
Litz, of Austin, belongs to Girls’ Pint Out, a national organization that brings women together for craft beer tastings.
“I know a lot of female hopheads, definitely,” Litz says.
Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of marketing, Paul Chibe, says that “Gen Y or Gen Xers are used to a lot more variety in food and beverage” and says beermakers are going with the trend.
“Sushi was not mainstream 25 years ago,” he says. “Now, you find it in the smallest strip malls.”
Folkman invites epicurean adventure at Granville Moore’s, where he is as likely to recommend a beer as a wine to pair with a dish. He is known for his beer-based recipes, most recently a soft-shell crab sauce combining cream, sugar and Ommegang’s “Art of Darkness” dark ale.
In April, Folkman, Ommegang and Saveur magazine hosted a “Hop Chef” competition among 20 top chefs. The winning main course used Three Philosophers, a Belgian-style ale blend, to cook ox tail and sea urchin. The winning dessert was a crème brûlée made with Witte, a Belgian-style wheat ale.
Beer — it’s what’s for dessert.
Changing to WTO's 'Made in the World' Labeling Would Harm Americans
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamAuthor, ‘Can American Manufacturing be Saved? Why We Should and How We Can’
Follow Michele Nash-Hoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/saveusmfg
In 2011, Andreas Maurer, chief of the WTO’s International Trade Statistics Section, said “… in the past two or three years there has been huge momentum to get the necessary information” that would be used to rationalize elimination of country of origin labeling.”
The World Trade Organization and the European Union moved one step closer to eliminating “country of origin” labeling. On April 16, 2012, the European Commission and WTO held a conference to mark the launch of the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). This new database allows trade analysts to have a better view of the global value chains created by world trade.
Globalization is changing business models and increasing fragmentation of production. Companies divide their operations around the world, from product design, manufacturing, to assembly and marketing, creating global production chains. More and more products are “made in the world” rather than in any particular country.
Today’s traded products are not produced in a single location but are the end-result of a series of steps carried out in many countries around the world. For example, cars and trucks produced by General Motors or Ford may have parts and assemblies coming from several other countries, including China.
Instead of counting the gross value of goods and services exchanged, the new database reveals the value-added that make up these goods and services as they are traded internationally. The findings the Europe-based organizations instead want to adopt is a “Made in the World” logo for all products on the grounds that global supply chains have rendered country of origin labeling inaccurate and obsolete. This is significant as they may change the perception of the competitiveness of certain industrial sectors in some countries.
The WTO and OECD have been working with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the World Bank in the United States, the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) and the Japan External Trade Organization in Asia, and the recently created World Input-Output Database (WIOD) consortium in Europe to implement the new trade statistics. The WTO has signed a contract with the OECD to start issuing official statistics on international trade based on value added.
The WTO’s Made in the World initiative is part of the process of “re-engineering global governance,” said WTO Deputy Director General Alejandro Jara at the event launching the opening of the World Input-Output Database. With the rise of global supply chains “it is misleading to rely solely on gross trade flows as a measure” of a country’s competitive position. As companies have created global supply chains, “attributing the full commercial value of imports to the last country of origin can skew bilateral trade balances, pervert the political debate on trade imbalances and may lead to wrong and counter-productive decisions,” says the WTO.
The intent of the WTO’s “Made in the World” initiative is to modernize global trade statistics, reduce public pressure on politicians for protectionist trade policies, and reduce public opposition to free trade.
Director-General Pascal Lamy has said that “improved measurement and knowledge of actual trade flows will help better understand the interdependencies of today’s national economies, supporting the design of better policies and better trade regulation worldwide.”
In an article on the Economy in Crisis website, “WTO Pushes “Made in the World” on May 16, 2012, Karl Rusnak commented, “This may be a good PR move for the WTO and its agenda, but it doesn’t change the facts: trade still picks winners and losers, and the United States consistently finds itself in the “losers” column…This new initiative takes the same ill effects that have been occurring from free trade and attempts to reframe them in a more positive light…Trade deficits lead to bad results, but ultimately it is the bad results we need to look at, not the nominal number that represents the trade deficit. If the numbers had shown that the United States was running a trade deficit but maintaining strong job growth, the WTO’s new calculation method might be something worth looking at. Instead, we have lost millions of jobs as a result of free trade. Whether you calculate our trade deficit as $100 billion or $600 billion, those job losses can still be directly attributed to our failed free trade agreements.”
This Initiative could have dire consequences for America’s manufacturers and consumers. For manufacturers, it could eliminate one of the options allowed by the WTO — filing a charge for product “dumping” against another country to have countervailing duties applied against that country. For consumers, “Made in the World” labels wouldn’t allow you to protect your family from the tainted, harmful, and even life threatening products coming from China. You wouldn’t be able to support saving and creating jobs for other Americans by buying “Made in USA.”
Alan Uke, founder of Underwater Kinetics, a company that manufactures high intensity lighting and other products, believes that “country of origin” labels could change consumer behavior and revive U.S. manufacturing. He wants the government to require a detailed country-of-origin label on every product sold in America. The label would include sourcing information on all of the product’s parts and components along with the trade balance the U.S. maintains with each of those countries. Uke outlines his proposal in his book, Buying America Back, a Real-Deal Blueprint for Restoring American Prosperity.
The labels would be similar
to those
that have been successfully implemented in the U.S. food industry, describing such things as fat content, calories and nutritional values. Those labels have changed consumer behavior, forced producers to change ingredients, and motivated retailers to stock items that are demanded by customers.
“I am trying to start a movement of American consumers,” says Uke. “We need a home-team preference.” Uke is convinced that only the American consumer, whose spending represents 70 percent of the economy, will change the international trade dynamic in favor of U.S. manufacturing. Knowledgeable consumers demanding products made in the United States or in countries that have employ ethical business practices could motivate companies to change their sourcing practices.
Uke said, “The ‘Made in the World’ label is the antithesis of my proposal. This initiative was probably promoted by those who profit from environmental abuse and child labor. It makes countries that rape our environment and support child labor unaccountable to the world. Knowing the sources for products is the only way that people can make countries accountable for their actions. Consumers can’t determine their own destiny if they have no idea of the sources. If we want a better world, consumers need to be able to send their money to countries whose policies they support. This isn’t free trade, it is slave trade.”
Peter Navarro and Greg Autry, the authors of Death by China — Confronting the Dragon, A Global Call to Action, also recommend that “country of origin” information be provided for all products sold on the Internet by online retailers and that “Congress should require all food and drug producers to clearly label the countries of origin for all major ingredients that go into a product — and do so in a standardized and legible manner” in order to protect American consumers from tainted and poisonous products coming from China.
Greg Autry said, “The ‘Made in the World’ label is an obvious attempt to disguise the political differences between countries and normalize despotic regimes like China. This initiative can only result in the reduction of critical information to consumers. I agree that we don’t have full information provided on the sources for products today, but this is the exact opposite direction to go.”
The authors believe that if 10 percent or more of Chinese products were boycotted by Americans, it could be enough to destabilize the Chinese economy and topple the Communist regime. Converting to “Made in the World” labels would eliminate this possibility.
I urge everyone to contact your current representative to urge them to oppose this initiative and ask all candidates for federal office if they support our current “country of origin” labeling laws and oppose “Made in the World” labeling.
_______________
Reposted from the Huffington Post
Michele Nash-Hoff | Huffington Post | May 23, 2012
Follow Michele Nash-Hoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/saveusmfg
Chinese Firm Buying AMC Movie Theater Chain
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamAMC operates 346 cinemas mostly in the United States and Canada
Seattle Leading an American #Manufacturing Revival
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamPublished: Friday, May 25, 2012
U.S. factories have been expanding for more than 33 months, thanks in part to China’s rising wages, intellectual property protection concerns and other issues, Forbes said. It ranked 65 metropolitan areas by recent growth trends, job growth over the past five and 10 years, and the manufacturing momentum.
Nowhere is this linkage between technology and industry more evident than in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area, which ranks first on our list of the metropolitan areas leading the manufacturing revival. Over the past year the region was No. 2 in the nation in manufacturing growth, with employment expanding 7.9 percent. The aerospace sector, led by Boeing, accounted for roughly half this expansion.
The growth in aerospace and high-tech employment creates precisely the kinds of high-wage jobs, including for blue-collar workers, that are lacking in many parts of the country. In 2010 the average factory wage in the area was $64,925, up 9 percent from 2007. Most critically, manufacturing activity drives growth in other sectors of the economy. About one in six of all private-sector jobs depend on the manufacturing sector, and every dollar of sales of manufactured products generates $1.40 in output from other sectors, the highest of any industry.
The largest group of “manufacturing stars” are in the Texas-Oklahoma energy belt, benefitting from a boom in shale drilling for natural gas, Forbes said. It also reported that some rust belt stalwarts are seeing a manufacturing renaissance.
A Crib for Baby: Made in China or Made in USA?
in News/by MAM TeamROBBINSVILLE, N.C.–Stanley Furniture Co. – is betting baby cribs are among the few things Americans will pay a hefty premium for just because they carry a “Made in the U.S.A.” label.
The 88-year-old company recently shifted its crib manufacturing back to the U.S. from China to a sprawling factory here that was earmarked for closure with Stanley’s other two domestic plants not long ago. Today, the Robbinsville factory is an oddity in an industry that has been abandoning the U.S. because of costs: It is growing and investing over $8 million in new machinery.
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Another Made In America Home Being Built in Michigan
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamOur Made in America Commitment
In October 2011, The Boston Consulting Group confirmed that if every builder in the U.S. used just 5% more American-made products, they would create 220,000 jobs. We decided to play our part.
Take, for example, the first thing people see on a building site: silt fencing for erosion control during construction. When we found that we were using imported silt fencing, we asked our erosion control subcontractor to find an American-made product. They did – and it’s made right here in Michigan.We also found that some products made by global companies such as Kohler, for example, are manufactured in multiple locations and that Kohler and some other companies allow contractors to specify American-made materials when ordering.
The products we now use are made in 31 states, and many are made in Michigan.
The only products we can’t find made in America are recessed lighting and microwaves, and that’s because none are produced in America. Otherwise, our homes are as close to 100% American-made as they can possibly be. And we’re proud to play a small part in helping put American workers back to work.
Got A Project? Nail It With American Made Nails!
Below is the team at Maze Nails, a Peru, Illinois company and one of the last manufacturers of American-made nails. Says company president Roelif Loveland, “They work hard every day and appreciate it when people specify Maze nails.”
When you need nails for your next project, find Maze Nails in the Ann Arbor area at Fingerle Lumber or locate a dealer near you. These American workers, thank you!
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), no law requires most products labeled “Made in USA” to have any disclosure about the amount of U.S.-made content. The FTC requires disclosure of U.S. content only on automobiles, textiles, wool, and fur products.
A product claiming to be made in the U.S., according to the FTC, must be “all or virtually all” made in the United States or in U.S. territories and possessions, and the FTC defines “all or virtually all” as meaning “all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin, and the product’s final assembly or processing must take place in the U.S.”
It gives the following example: “A company manufactures propane barbecue grills at a plant in Nevada. The product’s major components include the gas valve, burner, and aluminum housing, each of which is made in the U.S. The grill’s knobs and tubing are imported from Mexico. An unqualified Made in USA claim is not likely to be deceptive because the knobs and tubing make up a negligible portion of the product’s total manufacturing costs and are insignificant parts of the final product.”
Reshoring of Some Chinese Manufacturing Jobs Becoming Likely
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamThe tide has begun to turn on the flow of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to China and other low-cost countries, according to a new study from The Hackett Group, Inc. Some companies are already reshoring a portion of their manufacturing capacity, and this trend is expected to reach a crucial tipping point over the next two to three years as the total landed cost gap between the two nations continues to shrink, driven in part by rising wage inflation in China and continued productivity improvements in the U.S.
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As Demand Rises, Ohio’s Steel Mills Shake Off the Rust and Expand
in Uncategorized/by MAM TeamRead more