Would you buy healthy food from a sick company?

The headline to this post comes, more or less, from an article in Mother Jones by Bill McKibben.

What he actually wrote, with Wal-Mart in mind, was, “There’s something gross about buying a healthy carrot from a sick company.”

How true.

And no, I wouldn’t buy fair trade coffee from Wal-Mart or from Nestlé. I wouldn’t buy it from Starbucks either. For exactly the reasons McKibben writes about.

In that one sentence I think McKibben has put his finger on a fundamental guideline for anyone who supports fair trade, organic foods, buying locally or any other green initiative.

It’s no just the products or produce you buy that matters. Consumers can also make a difference by being careful about which companies they buy from.

The future of fair trade and fair trade coffee lies in supporting companies which are involved not just for profit, but also because of a genuine, honest commitment to social justice.

Why support small coffee farmers by buying fair trade coffee from Wal-Mart when the company now has over 870 stores in Mexico, causing untold damage to local small businesses?

What would the Wal-Mart flyer say...”Buy here - Support a small coffee farmer and close a local business”?

To support fair trade in the long term we need to identify and buy only from those companies which are founded on a base of moral decency.

Comments

[John Wilks]

I'm very late to this post, but I feel I must disagree w/ your stance.

Buying Fair Trade items from businesses w/ a poor track record on social issue creates room for reflection and change.

Wal-Mart isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Buying FT items in their stores is a form of diplomatic engagement- as is communicating w/ the local management and w/ their corperate offices. Tell them when they've done something right (even if you question their motives) w/ the same gusto w/ which you tell them they are wrong.

Even large corporate entities are still ruled over by human beings. And most human beings are capable of a remarkable thing- redemption.

But if you don't engage in positive ways, you can never lead someone to redemption.

[Avery Adams]

Thats a great point. I've often felt the bad about buying organic products from a giant company that, ultimately knows little about the organic " way of life" if you will. This is a great blog. Please continue posting.