Scale and ethics
Trade-off or sell-out?
We see acquisition by Big Business of smaller names for a reason. The drive by Big Businesses to dominate the food chain.
As we see with acquisition of Green & Black (Cadbury’s, itself since acquired by bigger player Kraft), Innocent (Coca-Cola), Harris + Hoole (Caffe Nero, since gone into administration), Mindful Chef (Nestle), or tea pigs (Tetley).
Tea pigs though was not acquired, it always was a division of Tetley, in turn owned by Indian conglomerate Tata.
There is a darker side. Canny consumers do not wish to buy from Big Businesses. Acquire smaller businesses, masquerade as independent businesses.
Where does Mindful Chef state they are owned by Nestle? Mention this on their facebook page, comment deleted and blocked from further posts. Before deleted, another exodus of customers who thought they were dealing with an ethical company.
I have only once ordered from Mindful Chef, service appalling, contents low quality, and not all locally sourced as claimed, substitution for cheaper alternatives, overpriced (I can eat out cheaper), excessive overpackaging and obscene use of plastic. Complain, given the run around then ignored.
Note: I have since ordered from Mindful Chef a frozen food box. Once again appalling service, dumped on the doorstep in the sun in full view of the street (delivery instructions ignored), a courier service not a chiller van, the frozen meals, on what appears to be a paper tray, only not, worst of all possible worlds, plastic-lined paper tray, cannot recycle, cannot compost.
Mindful Chef engage in unethical, sharp practices. A crude data harvesting scam under the guise of a great giveaway, the only giveaway customers handing over their personal data for the chance of winning a handful of tea bags. Order frozen meals, whilst in the process of ordering, minimum order changes, prices of dishes change. Those who have left less than flattering reviews on Trustpilot receive an intimidating e-mail. Bombarded on social media, with texts, with junk e-mails, cold calling (which is illegal). Claims to be carbon neutral, but only through purchase of carbon credits.
Mindful Chef is what we see with startups. Hype, crowdfund, hype, vulture capitalists, hype, then sell before the inflated price collapses.
But it does not have to be, growth can be slow, organic. But too often what we are seeing are start ups, hype, crowdfund, vulture capitalists, hype, then hopefully sell out at the peak.
It does not have to be. Mindful Chef could have sold out to Waitrose. Instead they sell to a higher bid from Nestle. Or they could have followed the Brew Dog model, invited share funding from their customers.
I contrast the amateurish Mindful Chef operation with Riverford, professional, passionate, believe in what they are doing, no hype, no bullshit, no greenwash, slow organic growth.
Claims to sustainability and ethics are worthless, not when owned by Nestle.
Nestle and ethics in the same breath an oxymoron. What worth B Corp Certification?
Sacred Economics highly critical of the use of the term ‘sustainability’ by Big Business. What are we sustaining, their existing businesses models, monoculture mindsets that are destroying the planet, destroying local cultures?
Sustainability is a buzz word, we are all sustainable now. What are we sustaining, the existing bad models of growth for growth’s sake, no matter what the cost to the environment, the poor working conditions?
Instead of sustainable which has lost any real meaning, replace with steady state and cooperation, self-regulation, self-organising and adaptive, each network, forms a node within the next network.
Oatly peddles lies and half truths. Investment from Vulture Capitalists involved in rain forest destruction, investment from a Chinese state owned company to gain access to the Chinese market.
Peddling the lie, milk from cows bad for the environment. The comparison with industrial agriculture not grass-grazed.
Laura Young sums up Oatly:
I don’t want my money going to the destruction of the planet, and putting peoples lives and land at risk just so that I can have a creamy coffee in the morning!
Would you like milk with your cappuccino or watered down porridge with added enzymes?
Plant-based has become the new low fat, a means of marketing the output of global food corporations.
Tony’s Chocolonely, poor quality industrial chocolate, FairTrade scam. They do not even manufacture, processed for them by a company with links to slave plantations, co-defendants in class action in US. Their pathetic excuse engagement.
Assurances given to Cadbury’s and Rowntree during hostile take overs proved to be worthless.
We do not address the problems caused by a monoculture mindset with solutions from the same monoculture mindset.
It does not have to be. Let us use the local indie coffee shop as an example.
Our coffee shop could expand by slow organic growth. It could every couple of years open a new coffee shop. Or it can bring in outside investors and go for rapid expansion. Or, skilled baristas leave, open their own coffee shops, roasteries, all network and cooperate with each other.
Or we have the Barcelona model, many co-operatives, all network and support each other.
A network is the way to scale, not a monolith, top down structure accountable to no one, not even the shareholders, and least of all the workers or the societies in which embedded.
We also need to look at open co-ops, collaborative commons, to defeat Big Business hijack of our food system. Use of FairCoin and FairCard to localise the flow of money away from Big Business to the benefit of local economies.
