A leader in sustainability by any other name

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The announcement of the 2009 commencement speaker will undoubtedly elicit varied responses from students and other members of the College community, be they glowing, decidedly less enthusiastic or simply uninformed. ("Who is that?" was the most common reaction among Campus editors upon hearing the news.) Stonyfield Farm "CE-Yo" Gary Hirshberg certainly lacks the cache of a Bill Clinton, but Old Chapel and the Selection Committee have been quick to trumpet Hirshberg as someone who champions - through both his business practices and personal ethics - many of the ideals that the College holds most dear, serving as a concrete example that sustainability is not anathema to profit.

Still, it is important to remember that not all eco-entrepreneurs are created equal; that Stonyfield's push for reform in the food industry, while admirable, does not necessarily mean its motives are completely in line with Middlebury's. Dining Services at the College has always been notably forthright about its own code when choosing ingredients, which is that local products are universally favored over organic ones. By contrast, the continued success of the Stonyfield brand - an 85 percent stake of which is now controlled by Group Danone, a French conglomerate - lies in Hirshberg's ability to affix organic labels to his company's products and market them on a massive scale. Because of the dearth of locally grown and organic options, Stonyfield Farm must therefore consider (if not actually commit to) sourcing a significant portion of its ingredients from locations around the world, raising the costs of transportation in terms of both treasure and carbon dioxide. Indeed, in 2006, Stonyfield Farm came under fire for exploring the merits of importing milk from New Zealand - a country roughly 9,000 miles distant. Hirshberg's reply to the allegation made clear that Stonyfield has never bought milk from the South Pacific, but the spat also inadvertently raised questions about the scalability of the organic food movement in general.

It is not our intention to make a value judgment about the merits of local versus organic versus fair trade versus carbon-neutral versus the myriad other classifications that can now be associated with the food gracing the shelves of grocery stores across America. To be sure, Middlebury's graduating seniors will benefit greatly from exposure to Hirshberg's business savvy and executive integrity. But our duty demands that we critically evaluate our speakers - not just on their celebrity status, nor on their evident merits, but on their relationship to us, and ours to them.