The rising tide lifts all boats.

We can support our competitors! Its ok to cheer each other on!!!

I’m hard wired for this, but I should take more time to  explain why… 

Because if your niche is tiny, you don’t need to “win the market,” you need to grow the market.

A niche doesn’t get big because one company dominates it.

A niche gets big because multiple companies prove the category exists, educate consumers, normalize the product, and make the market safer, easier, and more familiar to enter.

Cheering your competitors on is not charity.

It’s category creation.

When your competitor gets press, or distribution, or a rave review — they’re not “stealing your customers.” They’re doing free education, building demand, and making it easier for the next person in that buyer’s journey to understand exactly what your product is.

You don’t need a bigger slice of the pie.

You need a bigger pie.

Or a Rising Tide that raises all boats!!! (Yey! I caught a fish!)

Local value-added products aren’t cute. They’re insurance.

Lionberry 's Weekly Delusion and Re-illusion Update.

People act like small batch is a hobby.

Nope.

Every bottle from a small farmer is a value-added product inside a value food chain.

That chain is made of humans, not container ships.

If global trade gets tariffed to death, or the truckers strike, or a war kicks off, or a fuel shortage hits, or a natural disaster…guess what?

Walmart will not be driving to Thailand for pineapple juice.

Local food is the only thing that can actually disrupt the global supply chain — in a good way.

And here’s the delusion:

Everyone thinks “we’ll connect with the local farmers when we need them.”

Nope.

If the shelves go empty, it’s already too late.

Now is the time to get the relationships built. The value chain in motion. 

Now is the time to slot locals in the stores — even if it’s as “novelty items” at first on a local farm shelf.

Because when the global pipeline hiccups?

The people who will actually feed your region

aren’t the ones with the biggest warehouses.

Shop local or… we’ll be learning how to season cardboard and call it rustic.