I’m really in need of some critical information available there.

Gina - Local is huge for me, too. It’s so cool to get to know our small family farmers and hobbyist producers. It feels great to support them and our local economy. We have enough local producers of treats providing us with goodies now that we only sell treats made by hand by people we know personally and have quite the selection! One thing I love about the group aspect is the strong community bond and getting to know a large group of supportive, smart, responsible, knowledgeable, like-minded people that truly “get it”. It’s so refreshing and simply feels good; good food from good people, and good people to share it all with – all good!

Just kidding. REALLY!

See, the thing is these e-smears are launched and fly around like the world’s craziest game of telephone. When you get one, you have to go figure out why.

It usually isn’t very hard. Big industry is behind this one, but I’m pretty sure animal-right folks have been behind others. (I gotta suspicion that the Swiffer/Febreze-kills-pets e-mail crap that won’t go away is all about the animal-rights folks’ intense hatred of all things Proctor & Gamble.)

I personally actually agree with Sunstein’s views as quoted ….. I was merely bringing it up because people who hold strong personal views do often find ways to champion some of the causes in their public lives. And I actually think this might be a good thing in this case. But if there’s some smear thing happening because of it - well, that sux.

Anyway, I’m Canadian so it’s not my country, not my regulator.

:-)

http://terriermandotcom.blogsp.....th-me.html

Cass Sunstein’s views on animal rights have no intersection with the job he has been chosen to do. And the source of the e-mail/blog campaign against is an interesting one, to say the least.

Personally, I’m a lot more concerned with former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsak running the USDA, a choice that guarantees big corporate control over a food system that’s cruel to animals and workers, environmentally unsustainable and squashes the rights of consumers to choose from small, family-owned and sustainable farms and ranches. Oh, and food safety? Fuhgeddaboutit. (Interesting that his first actions, according to Pork magazine(!), included dumping Country of Origin Labeling and announcing “food safety” measures that will continue to advance our dangerously centralized system of factory farming (which is also a threat to bio-security, hello terrorists, welcome!). Oh yeah, that’s change we can believe in … not.)

But hey, work yourself up into a froth over Sunstein. It’s good for business. Big business, or the Center for Consumer Freedom wouldn’t be involved.

I have some pretty strong views. What if I were not allowed to be hired at my day job because of those views, in a job in which I am in no position to act on those views? Even if I were the best person for the job unrelated to my own personal views?

There’s a word for that … hmmm … oh .. wait … two words, take your pick:

1) Blackballing
or
2) McCarthyism

It’s a free country, and Cass Sunstein is entitled to hold views with which I do not agree in a position in which those view are irrelevant. And so are you. And so am I.

Do you really want that to change?

I think it was American Peanut Butter Company.

I’m kind of a lazy shopper. I tend to re-order from the same sources — and negotiate rather than comparison-shop on price.

It doesn’t have to be combative: A simple, “look, can you do better on this for a long-time, regular customer?” delivered with a smile works wonders.

And that way, I get to keep my business with local small business, which is something I believe in, strongly.

Thanks, Gina. That sounds like just the kind of thing I’m looking for!