Buy Local: So Important, but Not Enough

I really struggle with this one, especially on the food front. My heart, and indeed a good part of my behavior, is about Buying Local. I recommend Stacy Mitchell’s Big-Box book to anyone, as she is accurate; and my friend, Judy Wicks, founded BALLE several years ago. Check them out.

But if we truly believe that the mainstream grocery/restaurant/food manufacturing world is making us sick and agriculturally destroying the planet, then the scale and the growth potential, at least in the near-term, of the Local movement are simply not going to get us to a level of transformative change.

As I blogged previously, we were at the Common Ground Fair in Unity last weekend. Perhaps 25,000 wallowing in the joy of totally organic midway treats and booths of fresh produce. We brought cloth bags and loaded them with jars of organic applesauce, sunflower oil, and local honey. We felt “rich,” and the feeling at that moment was one of hope.

But this was a single event on a single weekend in a rural part of Maine that accounted for a small fraction of the food that was purchased that weekend in the State of Maine, and it will now be dormant for another year. The wonderful Rosemont Market (Portland, etc.), Lois’s (Scarborough) and Royal River (Yarmouth) always do a great local job; and in my consulting work small local companies are my favorites. But the Walmarts and the supermarket chains that are owned by European conglomerates did most of the business. We all love to hate Walmart; but are the supermarkets owned by those from far, far away any more trustworthy?

We must educate the mainstream consumer about what they are eating, what it may be doing to them and where their food comes from. And that means meeting them where they are, not where we, the already converted, hope they will be some day. So, I say get as much natural and organic product into the mainstream locations as possible and keep telling the chains to buy from more local purveyors. Every inch of shelf space that is taken by these folks is space not taken up by the mainstream vendors.

Then….promote slow conversion to the local and particularly the healthy local, through publicity, tastings at every event possible, social media and continuous education about the economic impact of this choice. I think the gradual approach (commit to 10%?) has the best chance of success because sooner or later the quality of experience and the realization of the community impact may become an individual epiphany.

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Sustainable Business, the four legged stool

“Sustainability” is one of those words that is showing up everywhere, as frequently as “natural” did a decade ago. And like natural it is one of those words that has as many definitions as folks to define it (some from institutions with fancy names and some from the man/woman in the street). What I am most interested in is exploring the notion that it is NOT JUST GREEN. It is a wholistic model with several key components. As both a consultant and entrepreneur for 20+ years in the Sustainable Business world (what we used to call the socially responsible business world), this is what I think it is. I would love to hear what you think.

1. There used to just be business (the first leg). If you were a good patriotic American, you believed in the capitalist model and that, if the business was successful, then all other aspects of life would naturally fall into place.

2. In the late 80s, a group of people started talking about socially responsible business and the importance of the Double Bottom Line (now we have two legs). A company needed to make money AND it needed to take care of its employees and be concerned for the planet. There were icons like Ben Cohen and Anita Roddick, and doing the right thing felt great and drew lots of enthusiastic young people into the business world. There was lots of recycling, post-consumer paper and a range of other behaviors which confirmed that as an entrepreneur, you were a true believer. Business may be part of the problem, but there remained a belief system that business could be part of the solution.

3. As the movement matured, some folks said, “We have to split the environmental and the social.” That made three legs. Environmental behaviors were becoming more mainstream, but care for one’s employees (and indeed one’s consumers and maybe even one’s community) became more important. The measuring tool was now the triple bottom line.

4. As the new century has begun and as we finally admit that the planet is terrifyingly fragile, companies, especially emerging ones, have a responsibility in four arenas: business success, environmental impact, impact on people and impact on their community (the four legs of the stool). To develop an incredibly green product and not care about where it is made or the conditions under which it is being made is not sustainable. To open a business and not include the full spectrum of your new community in your workforce is not sustainable. To be fair to your employees while making a product that damages the environment is not sustainable. To be so mission-driven that you do not prioritize making money is not sustainable.

One of the hardest jobs in the world is to be an entrepreneur. And to have to bow to all four of these mandates- especially when some conflict with others- makes the job even harder. But we have no choice. More thoughts to follow.

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