Life… With Ice Cream
As reported in the inestimable International Herald Tribune (a good non-US perspective I like to keep tabs on), global food reserves are running low. The green revolution not withstanding, the news troubles me. Throw in global warming, the moves by multinational agri-conglomerates like ADM and Montsanto (in the US, this translates to the farm bill and NAIS), and the news seems even more ominous.
When we tell people about our business (Perfect Flavor), we tell them that our goal is sustainability. In its simplest definition, sustainability refers to the long-term longevity of a human enterprise. Sustainability encompasses several overlapping concerns: the environment, social systems, and economic systems. One widely employed definition states that sustainable development:
“meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
With respect to the environment, one definition of sustainability means that all of the things a business takes from the Earth - the inputs like energy, fuel, and raw materials - must eventually be returned to the Earth in such a way that they can be used again.
We, like others involved with sustainable businesses, struggle with these definitions and labels. Although the terminology provides context, it can be confusing and limiting. In part, the problem lies with its Platonic “either/or” duality. We find it more useful and practical to consider things along a continuum from “less sustainable” to “more sustainable”.
The problem gets even more complex, because even the idealized notion of sustainability changes over time. Sustainability isn’t a place - it isn’t a singular and fixed destination. Like us, it evolves, as our understanding of the planet Earth and our species’ place thereon evolves. Sustainability is a process - a point of view that demands thinking, exploring, and questioning the status quo.
In that spirit, and encouraged by the notion that transparency matters, we offer a list of things we know that Perfect Flavor can improve upon. We hope that this disclosure will help our customers understand what we do, and the challenges we face. On some issues, we have had little or no choice on how to proceed because regulatory requirements are very stringent. On other issues, we have chosen to compromise because we are a small Mom & Pop business, and have insufficient capital to pursue other options.
Startup
Ongoing
When we look at this list, we feel challenged to improve the myriad ways our business impacts the environment. The stark nature of this list illustrates just how far we are from our goal, but it heartens us to pursue the dream with passion.
The Bush administration’s lastest ill conceived food policies hasten the race to the bottom in the industrial food business. What can you do? Know what you’re eating, where it comes from, what’s in it, and how it got to your table. Sounds hard? It’s not. Go to your local farmer’s market, and when you buy, ask “Did you grow this? How?”
Try it. You’ll like it.
Once again from the good folks at Worldchanging:
No Sweat Apparel, a Boston-based start-up committed to producing sweatshop-free, 100% union-made apparel. No Sweat bills itself as the first “open source” apparel manufacturer, meaning that they openly expose and share what’s behind their product, and they invite cooperation in keeping the sources open and improving the inner-workings of those sources, to produce a better end result.
The food and clothing industries need to adopt many of the same strategies towards true transparency: disclosing origins, contents, and sourcing policies.
Use Community: Smaller Footprints, Cooler Stuff and More Cash is another great post from worldchanging:
Like many people, I want less clutter and hassle in my life. I already have too much stuff I have to store, too many things I have to maintain and keep track of… …these things take up much of the time, energy and money I might otherwise apply to having the experiences I want in my life. I want an institutional tool for owning less and doing more.
What if we, as a species, were about to pitch off the edge of our ecological and evolutionary cliff? What if all the signs were there, but we were just too muddleheaded to see them? What if the bees are smarter than we are?
At Perfect Flavor, we are trying to build a sustainable business. We make organic ice cream. We make ice cream from local ingredients. We’re paying a living wage to our employees, and providing health care benefits for part-timers. But, this is absolutely brand new ground for me, and for Lynsie - not only in the sense of starting a new business, which is always a leap into the unknown - but even moreso because of our committment to making this a green business.
One aspect of the business Lynsie has spent alot of time on is developing our packaging to be environmentally friendly. We’ve looked hard at using PLA, a new plastic-like substance that’s made from corn and which is biodegradable. For anyone else out there walking the same path, check out this article at WorldChanging.
I’d really like to see some decent rankings for Perfect Flavor for a few choice keywords like “ice cream”, “organic ice cream”, “gourmet ice cream”, “ice cream club”, and more. I’ve brainstormed up a list of about 50 or so keywords and keyword phrases. I’m brand new to the SEO game, so it’s a bit of an uphill climb. I’m using wordtracker and googlerankings.com to help.
In the meantime, last night I tried some of Lynsie’s awesome peach sorbet. God, it’s so damn good. It tastes like a recipe for cold, refreshing summertime goodness.
Ice cream question of the day: What’s the difference between sorbet and sherbet?
Answer: Sherbet has dairy. Sorbet is just ice.