On Demand
How to Make Money and Save the World
Monday, January 28, 2008
Businessman Gary Hirshberg believes that businesses can be more profitable and help save the planet at the same time. In his new book, Stirring It Up, he explains how he used environmental principles to build Stoneyfield Farms, a $300 million-per-year organic yogurt company.
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I think these two stories - "Social Business" of last week and this one - are fine, however, the surface story sounds much better than what is going on at more detailed levels. For example, why do these 'entrepreneurs' sell out to large companies - namely Dannone? - then ride off into the sunset and write a book about it? Because they're rich and they have lots of time now to go on radio shows?
Whether or not Leonard decides to dig into this story and this author/entrepreneur, who knows what will come out. Neither the Bangladeshi of last week or this guy acknoweldge what came before them in the 1970s. E.F. Schumacher really had the best creative solution, which Micro-Credit helped of late - Intermediate Technology, and decentralized economic development by small owners of this technology - coined in his famous and still worthwhile book 'Small is Beautiful'.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/105-5130574-5988442?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=small+is+beautiful&x=0&y=0
Small is simply not big news, or sells books anymore, I guess. But small does change the world one person at a time.
Oh yes, forgetting the past 40 years for a moment, if we look back 300 years, the Quakers have been running 'social' businesses utilizing 'enlightened self-interest' over this period of time. At the same time Quakers mostly enabled the Industrial Revolution, by being the best scientists, inventing iron for bridges and steel which could carry trains. They also were famous for integrity in lending money locally over the countryside in England and then selling the loans (all the while ensuring that the borrowers could pay back the loan) to the Bank of England in London.
E.F. Schumacher, the author of 'Small is Beautiful' was a Quaker also. Schumacher also championed spinning off organizations which were self-governing and self-owned in a decentralized fashion when they became too big. Such is the business model for past-days Quaker religion in their expansion, by the way.
If Stoneyfield is so concerned about the environment, why don't they they use recyclable plastic for their containers? They create a lot of nonrecyclable waste.
Can you ask Gary about the link to dairy and Prostate cancer in men? There have been an abundance of reports documenting this link, and dairy to many other diseases for that matter. Why should we consume dairy? And how do we know that your cows are treated humanely? Also, why should we consume dairy when no other species consumes dairy after birth?
This company is green? Are you kidding me? This guy is a joke. His company produces millions of yogurt containers which cannot be recycled by most because they are #5 plastic.
Shana beat me to it: Why have we moved from the wax-coated cardboard yogurt containers of my childhood to the difficult-to-recycle plastic containers of today?
Alie - dig a little deeper then read Weston A Price DDS - copyright 1937 - about dairy. We get our info from all kind of tainted places. Check it out.Processed dairy is not the same as certified raw dairy -
For the record: Stonyfield Farms' yoghurt is TERRIBLE, at least in NYC. Sour GOUP. It depresses me every time I'm force to buy it because of its total market domination.
There are only a couple of good yoghurts in America, admittedly. I can't even think of the name of the one I normally buy because I can only think "stonyfield" right now. It starts with an H, it's a small farm upstate... they make bread too (one of the few good loaves of whole wheat bread in NYC as well).
I guess Stonyfield's dominance has to do with being the first truly organic option, and good marketing. It's just too bad for those of us who actually like good yoghurt.
On the recycling, by the way: The Park Slope food coop takes the containers, even though they're #5, but they don't take the lids -- the lids are not stamped with a number, so they're unacceptable even though they seem to me to be the same plastic.
Bummer.
what should we New Yorkers do with the containers? I eat a lot of Stonyfield yogurt.
Organic is meaningless now since the FDA reduced the standards to nothing.
a farmer can spray DDT all over his or her crops and still call the vegtables "organic".
What about that?
Remembered the name: Hawthorne Valley farm. Now there's an organic farm that actually also knows how to make yoghurt -- sweet, good texture, etc.
Same recycling problem. In Ontario there is a farm, Pine Hedge, which serves its yoghurt (amazing stuff) in glass jars, charges a $1 deposit for them, and takes them back. Seems like the right idea.
Thanks Chestine. I will check it out.
Does your yogurt contain nonfat milk powder or any other additives? Is the whole milk yogurt creamline or homogenized? at what temp do you pasteurize?
What happened to your decaf coffee frozen yogurt that I used to buy at Whole Foods?
I really miss it!!
Adding my voice to the recycling issue - they are not recyclable in our town in Westchester County NY. I have called Stonyfield and their response was that "most areas take this". I don't believe it.
i cant buy your full fat yogurt anymore.
Selling out to the diet/health gimiking.
Even though the city recycling program doesn't accept them, you can recycle #5 plastics at the Park Slope Food Coop.
The good yogurt upstate is Hawthorne Valley - biodynamic farm - they have great stuff at the farmer's market.
Dried milk is so bad for you
On the importance of being local:
Carbon footprint issues aside, the value of having something produced locally is the slightly greater access we have to information about the product, the ability to actually visit the farm, to picket in front if need be... "local" means connected by social networks to some slight degree, and I think this is very valuable.
Also traderspoint creamery comes in glass but they add (and admit to adding) dried milk.
I think it's good to know your farmer. I don't trust Stoneyfield - don't know if they are grass fed cows who take sun - that's important
Oh this guy is full of BS!!! You can't make yogurt from ultrapasteurized milk! try! Organic is not good enough.
Was there a change in the recipe for your plain, fat-free yogurt? I used to enjoy it greatly, but lately it has tasted different.
Question for Mr Hirshberg:
How much of the carbon footprint of Stonyfield is from refrigeration on the store shelf?
What do you think of the no-refrigeration dairy, like Pharmalat and that sort of thing?
It's great to see that you're basing your envionrment decisions on full life-cycle analysis instead of environmental/marketing trends!
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
Not in France!!!!!!
this is disgusting!!!
you're disgusting - irish dairy used to be excellent, too
This guy will say anything to hype his product. As a diabetic (type 1), believe me, complex carbs are not the same as simple sugars. A complex carb will metabolize slower that a simple one. It is quick and extreme changes in blood sugar levels that diabetics and others have to be concerned with. Also most foods that contain complex carbs usually are more nutritious than the ones with simple sugars.
The whole "carbon footprint" argument starts to get a little bit anal after a while. How does one practically determine these things? Does you have to calculate every single mile crossed in transport, from all parties concerned (the producer, the distributor, the retailer, the consumer) as well as every single photon of energy used in the manufacturing of said product?
For an interviewer who is usually so well prepared, the failure to disclose anything about the business relationship between Stonyfield and Danone (a company even bigger than Kraft) is very glaring.
I hate that phrase "save the planet." The planet is going to do just fine. The living creatures and systems that support them may not do just fine. But the planet does not need saving. We do.
''Stonyfield Farm (yogurt) is not yet dominated by multinationals, but has "partnered" with GAIAM, whose major stockholders include IBM, EXXON, CITIGROUP, JOHNSON & JOHNSON, WAL-MART, and will be owned by Danone by 2004, which has been (like Nestlé) 'breaking code on baby milk for Third World' (1/17/03 http://www.independent.co.uk). Danone is publicly traded: (DA) and has trace ownership by Citigroup, GE, Wal-Mart, Exxon, etc. ''
Leonard what is going on? I love your show, why didn't anyone care for this info that I found on the internet. I feel stupid because I was telling everyone to buy Stonyfield after that wonderful interview. But as I do my research, I am realizing that the CEO of Stonyfield came onto your show to justify why he is selling out, sorry to use such a generic term but I am still young. I am so confused about the organic labeling, and the products that are selling themselves out to companies like CLorax and Colgate. Is it possible that we can have a show about this, a discussion, because I am getting so depressed over this. Thank you so much! - Monica
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