Comments on: Lay’s local potato chips http://www.marcgunther.com/2009/05/13/lays-local-potato-chips/ This blog is about the impact of business on society. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:11:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: hockeyhunter http://www.marcgunther.com/2009/05/13/lays-local-potato-chips/comment-page-1/#comment-277224 hockeyhunter Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:01:02 +0000 http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=800#comment-277224 I dont get your thesis here....the country and world needs to eat - and there is no way people can return to the agri-society that existed 200 years ago and grow it all themselves. Local is a great concept but often I struggle with the tension among authors in this area with Local vs. anti-big manufacturer vs. anti-junk food. In this case, frito is trying to grow potatoes locally to feed people. Does it benefit them in terms of cost and freshness? Sure. But is it also a step toward sustaining the environment and country? Yes! If potatoes are not shipped in from elsewhere using fuel and you can track your food - great. If a huge company liek frito or wal-mart is making meaningful change, it trumps a few dozen or thousand grass-rooters growing potatoes in their backyard and getting off the grid. I dont understand the skepticism and suspicion that a big business is somehow only thinking of the bottom line. The low fat myth is being debunked daily and while we would all love a pristine planet, we still need to eat. Can we change more? Yes. Can big business help this? Yes. Can we stop eating to return the planet to the nirvana that we assume existed before the industrial revolution? No. I dont get your thesis here….the country and world needs to eat – and there is no way people can return to the agri-society that existed 200 years ago and grow it all themselves. Local is a great concept but often I struggle with the tension among authors in this area with Local vs. anti-big manufacturer vs. anti-junk food. In this case, frito is trying to grow potatoes locally to feed people. Does it benefit them in terms of cost and freshness? Sure. But is it also a step toward sustaining the environment and country? Yes! If potatoes are not shipped in from elsewhere using fuel and you can track your food – great. If a huge company liek frito or wal-mart is making meaningful change, it trumps a few dozen or thousand grass-rooters growing potatoes in their backyard and getting off the grid.

I dont understand the skepticism and suspicion that a big business is somehow only thinking of the bottom line. The low fat myth is being debunked daily and while we would all love a pristine planet, we still need to eat. Can we change more? Yes. Can big business help this? Yes. Can we stop eating to return the planet to the nirvana that we assume existed before the industrial revolution? No.

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