Tag Archives: ethics

May 18, 2012 · 9:37 am

The Farmer’s Market

It’s Friday and it’s the time of year when a lot of the Farmer’s Markets open up around here so I thought I’d use our Foodie Friday theme to talk about them a bit.

Farmers Market

(Photo credit: tamaradulva)

As a recent article explained, “farmers’ markets are hot business nowadays. The number of markets shot up 17 percent last year, and in a recent survey from Mintel market researchers, 52 percent of people said it’s more important to buy local produce than organic, which will likely drive the growth even more.”  There are a number of them in my town and the surrounding area, almost one each day of the week.   Most of the vendors are local farmers and the produce is generally pretty good.

There is, however, a dark side to many of these markets.  Some of the produce sold isn’t local even if it appears to be that way (there are no local tomatoes here in Connecticut in May, for example, unless they’re from a hot-house which means they’re less tasty).  There is loose labeling too – local, organic, pesticide-free, no-spray – many vague promises thrown around.  Which is the broader business point today.

We’re in the season of vague promises better known as an election year but we encounter lots of misleading or purposefully vague language from brands every day.  “Natural” or “Earth Friendly” or “Vegan” are meaningless because they’re not regulated, and companies are able to use these terms at will. It’s up to the consumer to differentiate marketing from reality and then to act by refusing to buy products that use misleading claims.

At the risk of stating the obvious, once a brand is outed as using misleading language, all sorts of bad things can and do happen, especially since the newer tools such a social media and the older tool known as a class-action lawsuit empower pissed off customers.  Frito-Lay was sued over the all-natural claims it has made for its Tostito and Sun Chips products.  Colgate had TV commercials for a Sanex bath gel banned for suggesting that it contains no man-made chemical ingredients.  The list gets longer every day.  Guess there’s no quota on stupidity.

We all know I’m big on reading the freaking label even though there aren’t any at the farmer’s market.  I ask a lot of questions instead.  But isn’t it a sad thing that we can’t really believe what we read even when labels are readily available?   What do you think?

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May 9, 2012 · 8:34 am

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Diamonds

I was out with someone last evening whom I’m hoping will become a client. He’s got an intriguing product and with some help I think it could become a game-changer. In the course of getting to know one another a bit better in preparation for a team meeting today, he said something that resonated:

A rose-cut synthetic diamond created by Apollo...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The road to hell is paved with diamonds.

Now, like me, you might have thought it was paved with good intentions but it turns out that the more I thought about what he’d said, the more I agreed.  What he meant was that too many of us look at the shiny stuff that’s in front of us and lose track of what’s really important.  As with the “good intentions” paving job, we often start down a path thinking we’re doing what’s best for ourselves and our families but end up in a different place altogether.  Working for a jerk or in a job that you can’t stand may bring the diamonds, but think of what’s lost in the process.  Bringing in a financial partner who can provide investment but doesn’t share your vision or ethics can be poisonous. Hiring brilliant people for your team who can’t or won’t get along is terminal.

Don’t misunderstand.  I’m not saying that we as business people and capitalists don’t need to focus on making money.  That’s sort of the nature of any successful business over time.  The business doesn’t survive for very long if it neither makes money nor lays out a way to do so.  What I think my dinner companion meant was that we can’t let the shiny objects – the glitter of the diamonds – become a distraction from what we meant to do with our business or our careers in the first place.  The connections we have with people – managers, subordinates, clients, partners, customers – should be based on more than just a financial relationship if they’re going to endure the odd bumps in the interpersonal road that come along.

What do you think?

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April 13, 2012 · 7:15 am

Strange Brew

“Strange brew, killin’ what’s inside of you”.  That’s the refrain of Cream’s 1967 song and our Foodie Friday theme today.  I got to thinking about this as the “pink slime” debate raged.  For anyone uninitiated, that’s a food additive that meat processors use and many of us unwittingly consume.  Suffice it to say it’s gross.  There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about it last week.  That piece got picked up in a post by Media Post about the controversy.  Not the best of things to read around meal time.  I don’t care to have ammonia in my food.  In fact, I definitely don’t want anything in my food that I would not be expecting and if there is something unusual in there it needs to be identified so I can make a decision about how brave I’m feeling.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JANUARY 31: Fresh ground ...

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Every so often I think it’s good to remind ourselves that these types of products don’t make themselves and that food isn’t the only business that produces products that aren’t fully transparent with respect to how they operate.  Tracking pixels anyone?  As marketers, there’s really no upside in being nefarious.  In a connected world, we end up getting caught more often than not.  As people from Nixon to Clinton can tell you, the cover-up is way worse than the crime.

Let’s think about this from MSNBC.com:

Food adulteration is more than just your neighborhood fish counter selling you farm-raised salmon and telling you it’s line caught. It’s ingredients that can go in ingredients to make products sold by your reputable local grocer or restaurant.

New research shows that the most common food fraud ingredients are olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice.

I find myself shopping more often at places that display clear labels about food origins and buying products with ingredient lists and nutritional information that go beyond what’s mandated by law.  Hopefully they’re being honest.  But why should I have to think about that?  Who makes the decision to lie?  What’s the situation in your industry?

Thoughts?

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