OP: Speaking of which, you have mentioned that one of our biggest flaws is
that we fight with each other in public. Can you talk about this a bit?
I’m not trying to be the esoteric
philosopher. I’m trying to be an
effective capitalist who is demonstrating a deep philosophy that’s very easily summed up through action. If
there’s anything of great merit out
there it is how we demonstrate our
values. With White Wave there was
financial reward but that achievement was nowhere near as rewarding
as the fulfillment, which was in two
areas: one was the philosophy, but
the other was that we did all this in a
capitalist society. We actually went out
there and did battle with capitalism
and we walked our talk. So I would
hope that I’ve communicated right
livelihood without making it too
philosophical. Enlightenment is how
you live; it’s how you act. I’m a far cry
from it, but I do make a conscious
effort.
Demos: We’re out there trying to split hairs. Everybody’s trying to perfect the
laws and this and that, but those things never will be perfected. They will
always be debated. There will always be gray areas and some people cross the
line but I don’t think it has any merit in furthering this mission to shoot each
other in public. Take it behind closed doors and work it out folks. Life is a
compromise. Never compromise the marrow of your core values, but we’ve got
to be willing to be flexible because we’re not out to sell elitist food. We’re out
to feed the world because we feel it’s a better system. So make it available, even
if that means we have to compromise a little in the process of making it perfect. Don’t ever lose sight of making it perfect, but a job worth doing is worth
doing imperfectly so long as you never stop working on making it perfect and
acknowledge that you won’t ever get to perfect. We’re going to make mistakes.
We just have to continually remind ourselves of what our core values are and
stick to them as close as possible. I think it’s important for the industry to
demonstrate its authenticity by narrowing the gap between its core values and
its demonstration of those core values. There will always be a gap but the reality is, you’ve got to narrow the gap. I’m on the board of Sambazon, Traditional
Medicinals and Pangea Organics; all three of them meet my criteria of right
livelihood or I wouldn’t be on them. They have all the warts and uglies that
everybody else has, but they have inspired leaders who genuinely believe in
what they’re doing and the gap between action and core values is narrow.
OP: That is all any of us can really do.
LEMUR
INTERNATIONAL, INC.
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