Planet-saving profiteers

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, organic agriculture, business, conservation

Let's see, the typical grain megafarmer's drill: plow the heck out of a field, add pre-emergent herbicide, let that degrade, add fertilizer and sow (maybe one operation, maybe two), spray for early pests, till for weeds the pre-emergent didn't prevent, spray for later pests, till some more, repeat a few more times, harvest, and haul to the grain elevator. Oh, and by the way, for some grains, make some attempt to wash off the pesticides, though this is risky because you have to dry the grain pretty quickly or it'll rot.

I must confess I don't know the procedures an farmer would use on a certified organic farm. And I understand that converting from "conventional" to organic takes a year or three and is costly. However, there is sufficient demand for certified organic foodstuffs that they command premium prices. This simple fact underlies the thesis of Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirshberg, President and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm: organic and earth-saving businesses can make money, and frequently make more than their conventional competitors. Considering the number of field operations conventional farming requires, I find it surprising that organic farming doesn't cost less.

I came across this book indirectly. My son attended a seminar at Princeton at which Gary Hirshberg spoke. He got a copy of the book (signed by the author) and came home quite enamored of its message. It does resonate with something a friend said years ago, "I'd rather spend a bit more on safe foods now than pay it in medical bills later." If there were a way to quantify that assessment, we'd have some real ammunition to effect major changes in agricultural programs. Assuming, as I do, that this effect is real, it is a second way that ecological and conservative practices improve the bottom line.

Another focus of the book is climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gases. Stonyfield is mainly in the yogurt business. That means its product depends on cows, which are notorious producers of methane, a greenhouse gas thirty times as potent as carbon dioxide. Interestingly, field-fed cows apparently produce less methane than corn-fed cows in feedlots. But the largest ways businesses like Stonyfield are reducing their gaseous carbon production is by switching to alternative energy sources such as wind and solar. While they presently use "offsets" paid to wind generation companies as one large resource shifter, Stonyfield is working toward as much energy independence as physics and economics will allow.

Throughout the book, to make his points stick, the author introduces us to other companies that are making things better while making money, companies such as Timberland Shoes, Wal-Mart (becoming a leader in reducing total energy use), and Terracycle. This last is most intriguing. Their main products are made from waste, such as a plant food made from worm poop (their term); the worms are fed garbage. Worm poop "tea" won't burn your plants, even if you water with it (you don't need to).

For a concentrated source of organic foods and products, Organic Valley is a good place to begin. It is a bit harder to find a central source for sustainable products, as the range of products is quite a bit wider. The author doesn't mention one, and a bit of Googling finds the hits for "sustainable products" dominated by an educational enterprise.

CE-Yo Hirshberg is an optimist, and closes his book with an account of what he hopes to see in just twenty years, if the ideas he and his friends are promoting become widespread. One item he glosses over is population. No matter how much we promote organic, eco-friendly, sustainable businesses in the West, we are still faced with a 9-billion-person planet forty years down the road. Food use has already begun to outstrip food supply in just the last two or three years, and that's with 6.5 billion to feed. Unless we learn to double the efficiency of food production, there will never be nine billion, because starvation will increase dramatically.

I am very favorable to the ideas found in Stirring it Up. To them we need to add a genuine motivation for people to stop having so many kids (widespread, free education can go a long way here. Educated people have smaller families). I just hope they can spread far enough, fast enough to rescue civilization before food wars and water wars sweep the planet nearly clean of human life. My son is my optimistic vote for the future of humanity. But I tremble for what he is likely to see before he is my age.