Carrots help you see in the dark!

Hubby and I watched "The Corporation" a couple weeks ago. It was very interesting and echoed a lot of what I have been reading about recently. I am glad that there's a widely accessible format for this information. Anyway, while perusing the movie's website, we came across "Carrot Mob" - in ingenious idea for how to enact positive change with the power of our consumer dollars.

The basic premise of the movement is that we can encourage businesses to change their practices for the better by pooling our consumer dollars and shopping at the store that makes the most positive changes. The trial that was done in California involved a bunch of local liquor stores. The Carrot Mob crew went to each store - all within a few blocks of each other - and offered their business to the store who would undertake the most energy-saving initiatives in their store. One store bid to reduce their energy consumption by a certain percentage, the next store bid more and so on. Finally the store who pledged to make the most changes to their energy consumption won. They made the changes and then the whole "carrot mob" crew got together one Saturday and had a mass shopping spree at the store. The store did well out of it because they got a bunch of business on that day, plus people continued to support it as they knew it was better than the alternatives and it also gave them added publicity. It is an interesting concept. There are some flaws: just because a business can't make as many improvements doesn't mean that it is worse... it may have been better to start off with and therefore have fewer potential improvements to make. But then at least the worst ofenders are cleaning up their acts... it is encouraging change where it needs to happen. Overall, I think the premise is sound and it has great potential. I particularly like the fact that it is a positive approach to activism. Rather than attacking those who are doing it badly, simply make them irrelevant by focusing on those who are doing better. I have been reading a lot about conflict resolution, particularly on national levels, and one theme that recurs is how communities have chosen to create alternative systems of government and society in the midst of dictatorships and oppressive regimes. They have no choice but to live in the shadow of the regime, but rather than fight it physically, they instead create alternatives to it so that in the end it is merely an empty shell and the real life happens in the society the people have created. I see the implication of this in the fight against the corporations. The very nature of a corporation sets it at odds with the greater good of the people. Rather than trying to force corporations to be more ethical, to essentially become something they cannot be, perhaps we should be just ignoring them and focusing our energies on companies who are willing to change or who are already actively engaged in socially and environmentally responsible practices. If enough people took this stance, the corporations would be forced to adapt or collapse... either one would be a satisfactory outcome for the citizens of the world. OK... I'm no Cesar Chavez so I'll get down from my soapbox, but I do live in wine country and I do love to see equality in action!