02/08/2017
As business run primarily by a single individual and at most by a small group of people, it's hard to not have a political slant even in our everyday operations. We try to be inclusive, generous, and active in our community so that we can better serve it. There is certainly a motivation of self interest, but if the act of profiting or even protecting ourselves endangers or takes away from others then we cannot in good conscience do nothing to avoid those outcomes even when it may not benefit us in the short term to change. I (and I think I can speak for the others who work with me) do not share the conservative faith in the free market to meet the needs of society. That being said, we will try our best as a business to prove that belief correct. We have and will continue to keep our wages above the minimums required by law, we avoid inexpensive fertilizers and lazy procedures to prevent pollution and rely on soil building practices to remove carbon from the atmosphere to be stored in the soil, we believe in and practice gender parity, we support our local schools, we embrace refugees, we celebrate diversity, our primary marketing technique is to donate 3 shares each season to benefit people in need or support a cause, we accept payments through SNAP, and even if the governments cuts funding for SNAP we will just donate more shares until a more compassionate and competent government recognizes the value of guaranteeing (or at least attempting to guarantee) food security and restores that funding, and finally, we rarely use social media and when we do, my thoughts can almost never fit in a single tweet. So if you tell me you believe government ought to be run more like a business, I'd have to agree with you. If we disagree about everything else, at least that's a start.
