When I pick up a bunch of greenish yellow bananas in the grocery store, I first look to see if there are any significant bruises. Although there is likely to be no cause for concern, I'm cautious as I pick them up having heard that large spiders are sometimes stowaways on banana shipments. I think about how many bananas we have at home and if these will ripen in time to replace our current supply. I check the price to figure out how many to buy. If the price is high this week, I hesitate but then I think about my son Andy and his love for bananas. And I also think about Philomena slicing one onto her puffed rice floating in milk. So even if the price is a little high, I usually still buy them.
What I don't usually think about are the plantations on which those bananas were grown. I don't think about the tracts of rain forest which were cleared to grow those bananas. I don't think about the villages surrounded by plantations which have no place to grow their own food, making the workers dependent on plantation labor to feed themselves. I don't think about the pesticides and herbicides that were used on those bananas which kill everything but banana plants, wrecking the delicate ecological balance and exposing workers to significant health hazards. Some of those chemicals used are likely to have been banned in the United States, such as DDT, still exported by American manufacturers for use outside the U.S. I don't think about the plastic bags which are used to cover the bananas to prevent pests from marring the skin because American shoppers want a flawless-looking banana even though appearance doesn't affect taste or nutrition. Those plastic bags, not disposed of properly, become the body bags of birds and small animals that try to eat them or use them as shelter.
For every product that goes into the shopping cart, there most likely was a grower, a packager, a distributor, and a number of transporters. At each step from germination to grocery shelf, many people touched it and directly or indirectly, many plants, animals, birds, acres of land and gallons of water were affected by its production and distribution.
But I don't think about those plantations and the working conditions of banana workers. The reason I don't is because most of us don't think our ethical responsibility extends to these people. I am responsible for my actions. If I am kind to my neighbor, am a good employee or employer, honor my contracts and pay my bills, give to charity, am good to my family and friends, go to church on Sunday, then I am leading an ethical life. It is the responsibility of the producer of the goods I consume to ethically produce the products I buy. As an economic unit, I am bound to seek the lowest priced, highest quality goods and services to make the free market function properly.
I use myself as an illustration today of a position I take everyday. I expect you do, too. Quality and price dominate my decision-making in the marketplace rather than also considering the means of production. And I know why as well. If I had to investigate everything that went into producing every item that went into my shopping cart, I'd be overwhelmed. I would probably have to visit each manufacturing plant, visit each grower, and log quite a lot of international travel. Just one can of tomato sauce could have me visiting dozens of cities. It is far beyond the scope of most of us. Especially in countries without the regulations found in the U.S. And even in a highly regulated industry, there is no guarantee.
This morning I challenge this attitude. I say to you that we do have ethical responsibilities to know that the products we take in for our sustenance are not produced in a harming way. I say to you that we participate in the destruction of our environment when we buy beef that is produced on land cleared of rain forest. I say to you that we enslave Chinese when we buy products made by forced labor.
Sounds daunting, doesn't it? The first time I thought about controlling my consumption on an ethical basis happened at the same time it did for many of you, with the California Grape Boycott of the 60's and 70's. We were asked by the United Farmworkers and Cesar Chavez not to buy or consume grapes because of unfair labor practices. The boycott continues today, motivated by health concerns around pesticide use. Another famous boycott was of Nestle's products because they were marketing infant formula to mothers in underdeveloped countries. The mothers were given free samples and encouraged to use it. They would stop lactating and have no money to buy the formula. They also had sanitary problems mixing formula with unclean water, often making their children sick. Both these boycotts were effective in changing practices of those companies.
The term boycott is fairly new, as is its use to affect corporate policy. The term first appeared in the late 19th century, after Irish tenants objected to the oppressive rent-collection policies of a British land agent, Capt. Charles Boycott (1832-97). The angry tenants refused to work the lands and isolated him both economically and socially. Another famous boycott was Gandhi's salt boycott in India, protesting unreasonable taxes that fell heavily on the poor.
Today there are clearinghouses of boycotts which track different actions and products to be avoided. Currently I know about 150 such boycotts are in progress against corporations. I think we need to pay attention to these boycotts and decide whether or not we agree with them, following up our decision with action.
Yet, in my mind, this isn't the path to greater ethical buying that satisfies me the most. Again it puts a huge burden on us to research carefully these boycotts and then figure out what products we buy are affected. And even if a product is not boycotted, there may be many reasons not generally known to stop consuming products from an unboycotted offensive supplier.
The problem with the message of a boycott is that it is negative. A boycott says, "No, I will not buy your product until you stop or start doing something." The company may stop doing one offensive thing but continue with a string of other offenses, less severe but still very harmful. This puts the boycott organizer in a difficult political position since boycotts are difficult to sustain for long periods of time, especially when progress is being made that the company can trumpet on television.
Today I'd like to advocate a different approach to being an ethical consumer. I'd like to encourage you to seek out and buy products from good producers. And starting at the bottom of the food chain, the first product I'd like to encourage you to buy are organic fruits and vegetables.
Organic farming is a response to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides which deplete the soil of nutrients, thinning top soil, damaging the ecosystem and leaving harmful residues in food that potentially harm our health. Since Rachel Carson alerted the world to the harmful effects of DDT, we have begun to reevaluate the some of the promise of modern food-growing technology. The widespread use of chemical fertilizers, genetically groomed seeds, and new pest-control techniques led to amazing gains in agricultural productivity. The problem was that success was measured too narrowly and over too short a time period. The damage to bird populations, especially the bald eagle and brown pelican didn't show up right away. The build up of DDT in mother's milk wasn't predicted.
The spirit of organic farming is to bring all these concerns into the system of food production rather than excluding them until the land is unusable. The philosophy of depletion may be effective for the strip mining of minerals but not in the stewardship of a renewable resource. There is only so much land on which crops can be cultivated and every inch is a precious national resource to be protected.
We are fortunate here in Florida that organic produce is available in some of our stores. The problem is that it costs more. The problem can be captured in broccoli and carrots.
I always buy organic carrots because I think they taste better. I'm really not violating the highest-quality lowest-price style of thinking, because I know the quality of carrot I'm getting offsets the difference in price, which isn't that much. Broccoli is harder. The difference in price is usually a dollar or more. The quality isn't that much different (so much as I can tell) and broccoli is a vegetable that has less pesticide residue than say lettuce. So the quality seems about the same for a higher price. Yet I still buy it.
This is the departure of thinking I'm advocating today. I'll pay more for a product I think is creating a better world than an equal or even a better product that I have less faith in. I care about how a product comes to me and I want to vote for it with my purchase.
Much more powerful than our vote at the polls is our vote with our dollars. We have tremendous power to reshape our world just by using the power of our purse. A number of changes in farming practices are occurring because people are willing to pay more for organic products. The market for organics has expanded as people of my generation have had children and have been concerned that those children not face health risks from pesticide and herbicide consumption. More mainstream corporate farmers are reconsidering their practices in light of the research and leadership of these visionary organic farmers.
Some visionary corporations have also been changing the face of business. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is a wonderful example of a company that has a thriving business in part because of the way they do business as a good citizen of their community and their world. I saw Ben Cohen give a speech on CSPAN describing the way they did business and I was mightily impressed. They have a deep commitment to the communities in which they manufacture their ice cream. They buy milk from dairy farmers in Vermont, where they are located, even if they can get a cheaper price further away. When the company first issued stock, they only offered it for purchase to people in Vermont to keep the company's concerns local. They produced an ice cream called "Rainforest Crunch" using nuts harvested from rain forests to encourage their use rather than destruction. They wanted to support a bakery run in the inner city so they created yet another ice cream. Always in their minds is how to run a business which creates a better world at the same time it creates a good product.
These corporate good citizens are not all small either. Quaker Oats has long been known as a good corporate citizen. The problem has been finding the companies to vote for with your dollars. Fortunately, there will soon be services which will do extensive evaluations of many companies and products to see if they merit the "green" label.
One such service I have been reading of late is Co-op America. In it I found an interesting article on buying furniture. One of the great concerns about tropical deforestation is the harvesting through clear cutting of exotic tropical wood such as mahogany. Some have advocated a boycott of all tropical wood use and purchase. The article outlined a list of furniture makers who use only wood from naturally fallen trees or from trees harvested in a way that is sustainable and doesn't harm the forest. An industry-wide boycott hurts everyone, whereas selective purchase stimulates a change in practices.
Another way we can buy a better world with our dollars is through choosing products that contain recycled materials. One has to be careful because the label may say recycled but may not contain much post-consumer recycled waste. I always buy toilet paper with recycled content. I'd like the congregation to start using 100% recycled paper for our orders of service.
And finally, we may create a better world by NOT buying something. The slogan of the environmentalist is "reduce, reuse and recycle." Reduce and reuse requires less buying, not more. I'd like to see this congregation begin operating from the environmentalist perspective with greater respect for the interdependent web of existence. There are many changes which we could make to save energy, use more recycled products, and reduce consumption. The cleaning products we use and the pesticides and herbicides we use on our property go into our little creek out here. We need to think more seriously about the effects of our actions on Charlotte Harbor.
Reduce, reuse and recycle is a radical change of thinking for many Americans. To reuse something is less convenient than to throw it away and buy another one. To recycle might mean we have to work harder at sorting our trash. To reduce might mean being a little cooler or warmer than might be our preference. But this is the kind of thinking in which we must engage if we wish to live an ethical life. Ethical practices may not be what is easiest and what is cheapest. Environmental ethics require us to consider what is best for the ecosystem in which we live.
This all may sound exhausting, but I do not believe it must be that way. In the grocery store last Thursday, I compared organic and regular broccoli. The first cost five dollars and the second cost one dollar. I bought the regular broccoli this time. There are no absolutes in this endeavor. Philomena and I have argued about the use of disposable diapers a number of times. I would like to see us use more recycled paper in our copy machine, but perhaps we will not stop using plastic cups for coffee right now. We can afford to pay a little more for recycled paper, but I doubt we can afford the labor to wash coffee mugs right now. We have to be high-minded and yet practical.
What I'm advocating today is increased awareness of using the power of our purse to buy a better world. I encourage you to get to know what you buy better and choose the product that comes from a good corporate citizen moving our culture toward sustainable life-affirming and supporting practices. I hope this congregation will take up my challenge to look at what we do here in the fellowship toward that end.
We have the power in our back pockets to effect great change in the world. Let's use it responsibly and wisely.
Copyright (c) 1995 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore, All Rights Reserved.