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How To Start Your Own Baby Food Business Part #5: Fresh, Organic, and Local

By: Mischelle Weedman Davis

Of course, you don’t have to make fresh, organic, and local underlining values of your baby food business. Perhaps these attributes are not as important to parents in your area. However, as I have already shown you, the market for products that have these qualities is growing rapidly. And the fact that your baby food is fresh, organic, and local is unlikely to turn people off. But you may loose potential customers if your food doesn’t have at least one of these attributes.

Why Organic Foods For Babies?

-Existing regulations on the amount of pesticide residues that non-organic foods may contain are based on ‘acceptable’ levels for adult consumption. Babies and young children are at greater risk because the immaturity of their body systems makes them more vulnerable to toxins.

-Because children’s diet is often restricted to just a few types of less processed food- like apples, potatoes, carrots ‘ they may receive higher exposure to toxins.

-From conception until one year of age, children are at their most vulnerable. During this critical stage of development cells are multiplying at their peak, yet the body has limited diet to draw upon.

-A baby’s digestive system is also more efficient that that of an adult at absorbing foods, enabling nutrients to be used more quickly, but also making the body more vulnerable to toxins. Immature kidneys are not as proficient at excreting harmful substances, so they may circulate in the body for a longer period of time.

-No one knows what effect genetic engineering may have on food products and the health of those who consume them. So the best way to protect yourself and your baby from possible problems is to choose organic. Organic baby foods are produced without genetically modified ingredients.

Why Local Foods For Babies?

-Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

-Locally grown produce is fresher. While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer’s market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time.

-Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be “rugged” or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

-Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

-Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.

-Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped.

Sources:

-Trading places: the local economic impact of street produce and farmer’s markets, New Economics Foundation, November 2005.

-Farm costs and food miles: An assessment of the full cost of the weekly food basket, Food Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, February 2005, Pages 1-19.

-”New Rules to Beat Food Terrorism”, Associated Press, Dec 6, 2004.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8796.shtml

Cafeteria Benefit Plans and Your Workforce

By: Scott Turner

Especially if you happen to be one of those unflinchingly ambitious micro-business entrepreneurs, I’ve been reading about everyday in pubs like Crain’s Chicago Business, you’ll eventually find that designing and offering up an attractive employee-benefits package will be an essential component of your future growth. An attractive health plan will do just that - attract - helping you recruit and retain crucial employees (meaning those fought over creative class/knowledge worker types Richard Florida is always yammering about). You’ll also find that a generous group plan will help link your employees’ interests to your concern’s.

That said, there are a seemingly unlimited number of group benefits options to consider. One that you’ll want to move to the top of your list is a Cafeteria Plan. The cafeteria brand of benefit plan can add a lot freedom to a employee compensation package, allowing your workforce to choose benefits options ala carte, if you will - selecting only the benefit options they’re most interested in.

Perhaps I should start closer to the beginning ? cafeteria plans, also known as the flexible spending account, the choice spending account or the section 125 plan, have become increasingly popular over the last few years because they’re designed to offer employees a truly convenient way to pay medical expenses with pre-tax dollars; relieving them of the burden of federal, and state taxes.

To take advantage of a flexible spending account, eligible employees set aside a pre-designated amount each year, in order to pay for medical expenses aren’t already eligible for coverage. The two most common types of flexible-spending accounts are dependent care reimbursement (also known as DCRAs) and health care reimbursement accounts. Employees pay for non-reimbursed expenses from these accounts. Unfortunately, flexible-spending accounts are “use-it-or-lose-it” accounts; meaning that any funds leftover at the end of the year can’t be “rolled over,” so to speak.

Exceptions To Those Limits Apply to Key Employees

Typically, funds set aside in a cafeteria plan’s flexible-spending account are exempt from income, payroll, and unemployment taxes. This exemption generally also applies to payroll and unemployment taxes paid on behalf of employees. (Take a look at IRS Pub. 15-B for exceptions, including treatment of highly compensated employees and certain shareholders of Subchapter S Corporation’s.)

Premiums paid to a group life benefits policy are typically exempt from income and unemployment taxes. In addition, premiums paid for up to $50,000.00 of benefits coverage per employee tend to be exempt from payroll taxes. For additional details, see IRS Publication 15-B.

You see, cafeteria plans offer you some versatility in putting together a benefits plan for your workforce. There are other categories of fringe benefits that you can offer your employees in a cafeteria plan that may be excluded from taxable income under IRS benefit-exclusion rules. Using a flexible-spending account — namely, establishing a DCRA and HCRA — may help to jump-start a cafeteria plan for your workforce. If you maintain a cafeteria plan, the IRS requires you to complete IRS Form 5500.

To help you keep track of employment-related costs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes a quarterly statistic called the employment cost index. The cost index measures changes in employee-compensation costs, which include salaries, wages, and benefits. In addition to publishing the quarterly cost index, BLS publishes an annual survey of compensation costs.

One last thing ? the information above is practically for entertainment purposes and shouldn’t be interpreted as financial advice. For advice specific to your firm’s circumstances, don’t hesitate get advice from a financial, tax or benefits consultant. You may even want to flat out hire an Interim benefits consultant or a full service benefits consulting firm. There are also a number of good sources of information on the Web you can take advantage of. The Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI), International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), and American Benefits Council are independent sources of truly “actionable” employee-benefit plan information.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8768.shtml