People have become accustomed to cheap food. At the grocery store, we expect to pay less than $3 for a gallon of milk, and $1/pound for whole chicken. Many people scoff at the “high” price of organics and farmers’ market produce. Unfortunately, conventional and processed food has hidden costs, externalities not factored into the price structure: The farm subsidies which keep the costs artificially low, the extra health care costs from a culture that has become fatter and fatter from the “western diet”. And the environmental impact of processing and shipping food, and soil erosion. Worse still, conventional food producers do not have the same commitment to paying workers and farmers a fair wage.
The economics of our food system are broken. We need to make investments in farms and food producers that not only sell high quality products, but also practice sustainable farming. We need to shift our focus from solely looking at short-term financial returns to include long-term social returns.
Equal Exchange has been championing a sustainable food system since 1986 by helping small farmers bring chocolate, coffee and tea to market and earn a fair profit for their crops. And Slow Money is a new organization that is looking for ways to invest money in our local food economies so that we not only grow more healthy food, but preserve the land and our environment.
Several weeks ago, I went to the National Gathering for Slow Money in Burlington, VT. The highlights were listening to Joel Salatin (from Polyface Farm) and Gary Hirschberg (CEO of Stonyfield) speak about the nature of their organic businesses.
You may recall Mr. Salatin from Omnivores’ Dilemma and Food, Inc. He’s an engaging speaker whose business focus is not on earning or profits, but on producing the highest quality product and protecting the environment. He posits, if revenues drop, the solution is not in marketing, but in improving quality: a high quality product sells itself.
Gary Hirschberg provided an interesting counterpoint to Polyface’s business model. You may recall that Stonyfield was sold to DANONE several years ago, and has since brokered a deal with Wal-Mart to sell yogurt in their stores. Stonyfield got a lot of flak from the “organic” community for this decision. But Mr. Hirschberg reminded us that we need to help organic become a mainstream food item, not an elitist luxury. Selling through Wal-Mart is an important step in that goal.
I was also impressed by some of the real, tangible cost savings that Stonyfield reaps by being organic. Humanely raised cows yield more milk and live longer. Ultimately, the cost of milk produced from his cows is less expensive than the commercial counterpart. As such, he pays more to the farmers for their milk so that they can earn a respectable wage for their work.
Equal Exchange is an important player in a sustainable food economy. In addition to being a champion of all farmers having the right to earn a fair profit for their crops, they also give out $65,000 in grants to organizations who are working to support Fair Trade, small-farmers and co-operatives. In fact, every year they give out 7% of net profits in this manner.
Equal Exchange appreciates your interest in sustainable food systems.
As a thank you, they will give a $40 gift certificate to one lucky reader. All you need to do is leave a comment here. And please share your thoughts on sustainable food systems and organic vs. conventional. A winner will be announced on Tuesday, July 6th. You must have an active PayPal account to receive the gift certificate.
Update: The deadline has passed for the give-away and the winner has been notified. Congratulations to Miss Maya who won the gift certificate. Thanks to all for the wonderful comments.
First, love your blog, have been following for the last few months. Of course I believe food needs to be an “economic” decision, but the long term “cost” of cheap/inexpensive food far outweighs the benefit. Simply higher medical expenses and loss of production from run down bodies is evident, but the benefit to your community is vast in being productive, having more physical and mental energy, etc. More people should support local food systems (50 mile radius) as much as possible, this WILL BE the way of the future (by choice or not) because of infrastructure problems and transportation cost.
Thanks for the blog, and thanks for the opportunity to score some chocolate.
Thanks for this post, Julia. An article in the on-line NY Times recently tried to suggest that organics was only an expenisve hobby for elites – I’m glad to see the real story getting out.
“We need to shift our focus from solely looking at short-term financial returns to include long-term social returns. ”
What it comes down to. A statement that truly becomes universal.
Inspiring post Julia!
Interesting article. I walk past the big chain coffee shops to get to Equal Exchange located in the North End in Boston. Best Cup of Joe in town!
Stonyfield is a very interesting company – and shows that larger, national brands can follow sustainable principles and be successful. I would have liked to have heard him speak.
LOVE the Equal Exchange cafe near North Station. Interestingly, it is one of the few coffee shops I know of that offers free wifi (my faves Diesel and True Grounds now make you pay). Even now that Starbucks offers free wifi, I would still prefer to give my business to Equal Exchange because of their work towards sustainability.
I hope the general conversation can start to shift away from the “expense” of organic/local and shift to thinking about the consequences of our current practices. I’m willing to compromise 🙂
And… looks like the FDA might start limiting the amount of antibiotics in farm animals (at last!). I prefer that my antibiotics come in a pill and as a choice and not in the chicken entree I order at a restaurant.
Here’s an interesting article from the good ol’ nyt’s:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/health/policy/29fda.html?ref=health
It’s nice to hear that there are still people with ethics who are more concerned about quality than filling their pockets. If they all think quality first, the lining in the pocket will eventually come.