Pushing Progressive-Minded business to be more Progressive

I just attended a meeting of our local food co-operative.  It was my first, and rather unnerving.  The only reason I went was to ask them why some of the brands on their shelves - which are generally considered by consumers to be good, wholesome organic-if-possible products from local and regional producers around the country - why some of these brands were in fact subsidiaries of Philip Morris/Altria, General Mills, J.M. Smucker, Nestle, and Kellogg's.

Many of them were surprised to learn about these brands.  If you go to the websites for the products - Boca meat alternatives, for example, or R.W. Knudsen, there isn't a clear indication in many cases, or any, of their owners.  But if you go to the parent website, all the brands are proudly proclaimed.

This brings my ideas of consumer activism/buying Progressive to a new level.  It's crucial for us as consumers to support companies that share our political values (or at least don't attack them) since the money we spend unavoidably goes into the political process; but it is just as crucial, if not moreso, to move one level up the food chain so to speak.

There are plenty of local and regional businesses looking for a way to get onto the crowded supermarket sheleves.  Not only does choosing a huge national syndicate damage their chances of getting to market, if it's an Altria it damages the political process which for a lot of people motivates people to choose a food co-operative over a chain supermarket.

What about restaurants?  Their distributors supply the ketchup, the mustard, the spices that sit on the table.  The money we spend there goes into the distributor, which if it is not itself a contributor spends millions with those who are.  And I can bet that the distributors aren't necessarily the easiest people for that restaurant to deal with.

I would argue that the whole process needs to be looked at.  If the big corporations have intertwined and ambiguous relationships amongst one another that allow them to influence whole market sectors, why should we as progressive consumers not have the same level of access to influence them?  Why should we not talk to the local restaurant and ask them to ask some hard questions of their suppliers?  

Isn't doing anything else basically saying that we, as Americans and consumers, have no loyalty beyond the brand - a loyalty that can in a literal sense be bought like a vote?

Isn't it the utmost in contradictions when we have a political ruling class of Republicans, many of whom are largely bankrolled by corporate America, preaching values and morality, when the corporations themselves owe no allegiance to morality beyond money and marketshare?

I said it to the council tonight, and I think it is relevant here: the metaphor is, at what point does your last version of a local grocery store, a food co-op, become a slightly larger and more detailed version of the organic section at the supermarket?  Because it is at that point where the country itself becomes nothing more than a big supermarket.

-doug