Wild Idea: Buffalo and Family in a Difficult Land

by Dan O'Brien

I had never been inside a food co-op and I was curious to know what drove the people who worked there. The vegetable guy had been one of the founding members and he knew a lot about food, the food industry, and how tough it was to compete with factory farms. He was an older hippy-type that barely raised his head to look at me as he stocked the lettuce, green beans, squash, and rutabagas. He wore his graying hair in a ponytail with a hairnet. “The big food companies just do everything as cheaply as they can,” he said. “That’s kind of the idea, isn’t it?” I’d been thinking a lot about business lately and I was sincere in what I said, but he looked up at me with deep exasperation in his gray eyes. “Your view of business is the standard party line: markets will work everything out.” My comment had touched a nerve. “That idea only works if you add in all the costs.” He had a rutabaga in his hand and tossed it up and down like a pitcher contemplating a fastball. “At the top of Monsanto’s list of crimes, misdemeanors, sins, and oversights is the accounting error of grabbing profits while pushing the costs down the line.” “Like to the next generation.” “Like to the next generation. Bull’s-eye.” He was still tossing the rutabaga up and down. “Now take this humble vegetable. It was grown about six miles from here. No pesticides, herbicides to worry about cleaning up. No water stolen from some imperiled fish.” He stopped tossing the rutabaga, held it in front of his eyes like Hamlet ...