The World is not a Giant Supermarket

Do you ever feel like you have been stripped of your humanity and reduced to nothing more than a mere consumer of material goods? If not, you must live in the wilderness, far from the ubiquitous advertisements selling the latest pharmaceutical drug that will make you happier, the SUV that will make you safer, or the super-sized caffeinated beverage that will make you more wide awake. In April I had the opportunity to listen to Indian physicist, ecologist, activist, editor and author Vandana Shiva speak on "Corporate Globalization to Earth Democracy" as Macalester College's Environmental Studies distinguished Speaker for 2004. It was there that I heard Ms. Shiva say: "The whole world is being reduced to a giant supermarket." I could not agree more.

Consumerism is not inherently bad- people need goods and services, and businesses provide them. In fact, business in its truest form is about using innovation, creativity, and skill to serve the community. Through the onset of globalization, however, we have lost this vital sense of community. As companies and their customer base grow, their ability to truly serve the community they know and care for shrinks. Vandana Shiva spoke of a situation in her native country of India that aptly reflects this disastrous effect of globalization. The introduction of the cola companies in India, in Shiva's words, has caused India to become "a victim of the environmental and health costs of the soft drinks industry." Since the inception of the Coca-cola bottling plants in India, for example, water shortages have become a big problem. Coke uses over a million liters of water per day in the production of its carbonated brew. Water tanks in rural India are drying up and in the region of Palaghat, the water table has dropped from ten to 100 feet. The once fertile ecosystem of Kerala is now only a shadow of its former self, as its agricultural yields have dropped to be one-tenth of what it was before the Cola companies arrived.

In addition to robbing the poor of their fundamental right to have readily available, clean drinking water, the Cola companies have also caused numerous health problems. First, Coke does a "favor" for farmers surrounding their plants by letting them have free waste from their bottling plants. This waste that the farmers then use as fertilizer for their crops has been tested and found to be toxic, containing dangerously high levels of cadmium and lead, which have been found to cause cancer and other health-related problems. According to Shiva, "Middle class urban India is also a victim because what Coke puts into the bottle is as toxic as what it leaves behind." Euromonitor.com reports that in 2003, Indian residents consumed 3.6 billion liters of soft drinks. Sadly, Coke and Pepsi have replaced traditional Indian drinks such as lassi, panna, and suttu, which are high in both cultural and nutritional value. As Shiva says, "(The Cola companies) have monopolized the market for thirst, buying up indigenous companies like Parle, and displacing indigenous cold drinks made at home or in the cottage industry. But what Coke and Pepsi sell is a toxic brew of coloring agents and chemicals with anti-nutritive values." The way that the Cola companies are making record profits while destroying human health, the environment, and indigenous cultures worldwide illustrates the way that corporate globalization has perverted the ideals of business.

So Just how do we tame this beast of the global company and shift toward the earth democracy that Vandana Shiva advocates? The answer is much easier and closer than you may think-shop at your neighborhood co-op. It may seem odd that I say stop consumerism by consuming, but there is consuming at the corporate giants with headquarters thousands of miles away and there is consuming at a store that is owned and operated by the community that it serves. So next time you are shopping at the co-op, know that you are doing much more than stocking up on your weekly supply of groceries- you are amongst a growing number of people who are voting with their dollars to positively shape the future of business in the U.S. and around the world. Keep in mind the words of Seward Co-op's Front End Manager Leo Sanders: "Buying local produce at the co-op you own is a small but powerful step in a continuous cultural and economic revolution. Power to the people!" By shopping at your co-op, you are making the statement that the world is NOT a giant supermarket.

Check out Vandana Shiva's two most recent publications: Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.