Monday, May 31, 2010

Response to Chia Defender's comment

As Wayne's wife, I have decided to respond to part of a post that was sent to the Webmaster (see the post below which has been put in bold type).

Regarding Wayne's investment in chia, he began researching various crops in 1991. This research project included various entities, governmental and private. During that research, chia seeds were planted in small plots. After observing the growth and harvesting of the plots, further investigation revealed the viability of this crop for potential commercialization. To that end, he has worked with various people/entities over these past 18+ years to see chia now in full commercial production, as well as the use of it continuing to grow. In 2005, Wayne and I began an internet business selling chia. We continued this until 2008, when the company was sold. Since then, Wayne continues to work with growers and others to get chia into the marketplace.

We are coming back into the retail market again. Competition is good. During our time working with chia, we have purchased chia, both online and in retail markets, from those legitimate chia sellers you speak of. We look at the quality of chia seed. Most important is the cleanliness. Is what you bought mostly chia seeds or did the cleaning process leave behind debris, weed seeds, other seeds, etc? Secondly, we are looking at coloration of the chia seed. Brown seeds indicate the chia was harvested prematurely. Immature seeds will probably be lacking in the nutritional content noted on the packaging. This is what Wayne means by putting good, quality chia on the market. Just as in any product, there are good, fair, and poor products, usually due to quality control issues.

While I realize I am married to him and that brings to it its own prejudices, I hope you will take the time to realize his investment in chia. If his re-entry into the chia retail market creates opportunity for all to sell as well as possibly provide chia at a lower price, then that opens the market to many - buyers and sellers.

Finally, to ask him to return to his animals, etc. is condescending. Those projects with animals are what provided the beginnings of the benefits of chia and bringing it to commercial production.

Patricia


But my interest in this blog has to do with the audacity of AKA Mr. Chia that he could just step in and try to reap the benefits of all the hard work and money that has been invested in bringing awareness to chia by the 100's of legitimate chia sellers around the country. Why does he think that it is necessary to bring a high quality, affordable chia to the market, when there are numerous sites that sell just that. I buy from www.nutsonline.com, as they have an impeccable reputation and they sell a pound of chia for $6.99 and Organic for $9.99. Since Dr. Wayne, AKA Mr. Chia� apparently does not own or operate any chia farms (based on his lack of response from a previous post that you deleted), then how is he going to bring a higher quality and more affordable chia than them, or anyone else for that matter?

It simply appears that Dr. Wayne's gravy train ended and I am sure that the chia sellers will not stand for his desperate return to selling chia. If he wants to continue in the Chia World, then he should continue his Agricultural Engineering work and his studies on how chia affects farm animals, instead of trying to steal money from the hard work of legitimate chia sellers.