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Thought for the day

"Wild beasts and birds are by right not the property merely of the people who are alive today, but the property of unknown generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander."
     - Theodore Roosevelt

Grow Your Own Savings

Recent studies indicate a pronounced upswing in home vegetable gardens, particularly organic gardening.

A lot of households are growing their own vegetables these days both for the satisfaction of producing some of their own food as well as making sure that what they feed their families is truly organic and safe.

Apparently this type of gardening has been steadily increasing in popularity, and has seen a sharp spurt very recently due in part to the uncertainty in financial markets. Many families are finding it necessary to tighten their spending and using this not only as a means of saving a bit of money, but also to get the children into the green movement and to teach them by example.

There are Advantages in Being Big

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Wal-Mart continues to roll out the road map for other retailers. A good part of their success comes from their ability to spot consumer trends before everyone else does. This time they are showing the rest of us how to sell socially responsible consumer goods.

They are leaving a trail of breadcrumbs with their sustainable, traceable-origin jewelry line called Love, Earth. Suppliers of that line of products must meet the giant retailer’s sustainability guidelines on pollution, health and safety, protection for ecosystems, worker’s rights and more. A batch number will accompany each item so the suppliers can be easily identified.

What’s next? Expect the concept to very soon include cotton clothing, coffee, furniture and lots more. Stores that hope to compete will be forced to follow their lead, which means the manufacturers that supply them will, one-by-one, fall in line. Are you there yet?

Football is Small Time

Ahhh, Football. Here we are into the middle of a new season and much of the nation‚s media attention is focused on football. But anyone reading this item as part of their usual business activity belongs to a far, far larger fraternity than your everyday football fan.

You and I are part of a 71-million-strong group of wildlife watchers who help to keep this country together, much more than any spectator sport. In fact, the group of which we are a part is more than four times larger than the attendance figure of all NFL teams throughout all of the 2006 season. That is to say, in 2006 we and our fellow nature enthusiasts were much more important to this nation than all the football games played in America during the same twelve-month period. The truth is we accounted for about the same total revenue as all spectator sports combined, plus amusement parks, arcades, casinos, bowling centers and ski hills.

Put another way, the $45 billion we spent that year resulted in $122 billion in total trickle-down cash revenue for this industry; we accounted for more than $18 billion in state and federal taxes; and we created more than 1 million jobs for Americans, a total labor income of $40 billion. And these figures are verifiable.


ECOLOGY

Can Birding Turn Green?

An increasing number of voices in the birding industry are asking how green the category will become. Already, feeders made of recycled materials are becoming more popular. And some industry leaders are watching to see how much the category expands beyond birding to embrace a broader definition of nature products for people who love the outdoors. Other questions remain unanswered. Will we see more organic bird seed on store shelves? Will more tube feeders be made of materials that can be thrown in a recycling bin?
    Trendwatchers should eye the two leading franchisers, Wild Birds Unlimited and Wild Bird Centers of America. Both companies have a history of supporting conservation and offering some nature-related products beyond birding.
    WBU already is stocking organic skin care products, which could lead the birding franchise leader into more gift and accessory lines in the years ahead. Company leaders at WBCA are assessing how to approach the green movement from a bird-product perspective.