On Our Plates
- by Margaret Weber
PAB Coordinator of Corporate Responsibility

Most traditions celebrate the meal as communal. Whether supporting fair trade through Oikocredit and Equal Exchange, or local agriculture through Red Tomato, Adrian Dominican loans through the Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) have fostered self-sufficiency on a local community level. Simultaneously, PAB’s shareholder work continually advocates for corporate accountability for long-term impacts on local and global communities.

In many ways, the food on your plate is a window to the work of PAB. Really, you say?

Let’s take a look at the components of a meal and ponder connections between the shareholder advocacy and community investing work done on behalf of Adrian Dominicans and your dinner.

• Entrée: meat or vegetarian

If it is meat, what were the conditions in which the animal was raised? Was it a concentrated feeding operation? If so, was there run-off from the slurry of manure, or air pollution?

If the entrée is chicken, what are the conditions/wages/benefits for the workers in the processing plant? Were growth hormones used? Were antibiotics used for non-therapeutic purposes?

If the entrée is vegetarian, could you afford organic? Were the soy or corn ingredients transgenic (genetically engineered)? Could you find out?

• Beverage: coffee, tea, milk, wine, water

Did the workers in the coffee/tea plantation receive a fair trade price for their product?

Did the cows giving your milk receive artificial bovine growth hormone? Do you know?

Did the vineyard workers have adequate housing and wages? Were they protected from pesticides and other agricultural applications?

Is the water bottled from a distant spring or from a local tap?

• Local or global

How many miles did your food travel from field to your plate? How much processing did the food require for the long voyage?

Do the growers/processors/distributors/retailers have programs for increasing their energy efficiency? Are they committed to reducing greenhouse gases?

• Processing and retailing

Do the growers/processors/retailers respect the right of workers to organize? Do the workers have access to health care? Do the food companies have human rights policies that prohibit exploitation of global as well as domestic workers?

Was the food heavily packaged? Are the packaging materials recyclable? Do any of them leach chemicals? Do you know?

• Financing

Does the local farmer have access to credit for the farm and for building markets for her/his product?

Are local wages adequate for residents to provide good food regularly?

At PAB, we see that what’s “on our plate” is truly communal and has economic, social and environmental impacts.