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Voting with your shopping cart.
We are what we buy.
Serendipity always interests me. Lately, I've been reading a lot in Robyn O'Brien's 'Unhealthy Truth' (more on that elsewhere). Suffice it to say that because of her guide to what's OK in terms of organic milk, I was pleased that Stonyfield's YoBaby Yogurt was a sensible choice for William. Good for Erin that she's already onto that.
Yet without that recent reminder about Stonyfield (dairy's not on my personal list right now because my body's telling me to skip it), I wouldn't have picked up on a Fast Company article about founder Gary Hirshberg and found this:
When you shop, you're really voting for the kind of world you want. What we should understand is, whether you're in the airport, in a supermarket, in a convenient [sic] store or a restaurant, every time you select one item, it has a ripple effect far, far, far beyond that momentary product. It is power.
We should use that power for good. I'm living proof of that. We started with seven cows. And millions and millions of people have voted with their dollars for Stonyfield, and now it's a $340 million company. We are what we eat, but more importantly, we are what we buy.
Robyn O'Brien calls it 'voting with your shopping cart'… as do others. When I heard her in person recently, she mentioned that because of consumer feedback Yoplait and Dannon announced they'd be using only milk that's free of bovine growth hormones by the end of 2009. Assuming that's happened, it's good news. No labeling requirement, though, so who knows exactly?
Anyway, it seems that we consumers have been quietly making a difference, just by the things we choose to buy. Sales of organic foods are up. Every penny we invest in better quality foods for ourselves and our families is a vote on that side of the ledger.
Even your seemingly solo act of going for those organic dandelion greens makes a tiny difference. If no one ever did that, of course they'd soon disappear from the shelf.
More to be done.
Filed by Kris on February 10 2010 
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