“social Purpose”

Posted by Carolyn Wilson on 09/11/2009

This week my 'muse in the news' is John Arlidge, reporter for The Sunday Times Magazine.

Do supermarkets have a twin: investment bank, Goldman Sachs?

Both argue they fulfil a greater good that justifies the monopoly of their respective industries.

“We help companies grow by raising capital…we have a social purpose,” said Lloyd Blankfein (CEO) in yesterday’s The Sunday Times Magazine. He was talking to John Arlidge about the success of his $1 trillion business and the ‘virtuous circle’ he calls capitalism.

It’s not difficult to imagine the multiples uttering a similar sell and labelling it food utilitarianism: “We strive to cater for the greatest number of people, supporting British producers and providing a platform through which the industry can grow and prosper,” so say the spokespeople.

And credit where credit is due. Supermarkets have turned towards home-grown produce and Goldman Sachs has managed to increase global markets by 50% from credit crunch lows – nobody can dispute it does what it says on its (gold-plated) tin.

Nonetheless, when social purpose involves squeezing every cent/sector of market, I agree with Arlidge: it is somewhat of a ‘bold claim’.

Just as Richard Gnoode (head of Goldman’s Fleet Street office) is ‘the suave investment banker - the cashmere glove to Michael Sherwood’s iron fist’, the multiples mass-market ‘buy local’ campaigns are woolly mittens muffling the bigger picture of industrialised food, and ultimately, of global food insecurity.

When 4 million Kenyons are on the brink of starvation, and as many as one in ten are surviving on emergency rations from the World Food Programme, we are all poignantly aware how little social purpose can mean without the practices in place to support it.

The Sunday Times Magazine’s ‘Pictures from the front line of life’ are a stark reminder of the volatility of our food resources: “Four consecutive harvests have failed in the south east, while the Rift Valley – traditionally Kenya’s breadbasket – has become a wasteland.”

I resolved to put my money where my mouth is this weekend: to charge 10 friends £5 for a basic British hot-pot and apple crumble and donate the proceeds.

If all of our 12,000 SF newswire readers attracted the same number of customers to a £5 Turkana-inspired taster, we could raise a collective £600,000.

Have a good week.