Pub Group West. 10/10/2005. 259 pgs. In this memoir and manifesto for sustainable business, Dave Smith recalls his many influences and formative experiences, presenting a model for business based on the principle of meaningful work. He organizes his book around the concept of "seeds," his updating of the seven virtues he learned as a youth in Christian Bible school: faith, hope, justice, temperance, prudence, courage, and love. For Smith, everything is a lesson. We learn how he lived the counterculture lifestyle, studied the wisdom traditions of the West, read the Whole Earth catalog, worked for Cesar Chavez, co-founded the successful Smith & Hawken garden tool store, later heading companies that sold alternate energy, seeds, and organics, where he learned to include democracy in the workplace. But it is not all about Smith himself. For each of his seeds, or virtues, he identifies Creative Action Heroes, people like Chavez or Joan Baez, who, through their actions, set an example and did good. A successful businessman with a proven track record, Smith and his ideas can benefit anyone in the business world. TO BE OF USE amounts to a veritable business plan--one that is visionary and practical. Originally published at $23.95 You save 96% off the cover price!

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Harcourt. 04/10/2006. 294 pgs. Business writer Samuel Fromartz traces the extraordinary growth of the organic foods movement, which now can be called the organic foods industry. He uncovers its origins in a patchwork of philosophies and movements, identifying various strands including Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING and the anti-pesticide movement, the work of J.I. Rodale in publishing Prevention magazine, and the late '60s counterculture (as well as the embarrassing presence of fringe groups on the left and right). He also provides incisive business portraits of brands such as Whole Foods, Earthbound Farms, Organic Valley, and the makers of Silk soy milk, showing how they grew, through luck, business savvy, or the acquisition of those who had ideas before their time. He forefronts key questions and controversies, such as how organics can profitably be grown on a large scale. Paramount is the question of what is "organic"and who will decide that issue: farmers, legislators, or corporations? And what will the future be as mainstream food companies express an interest in selling an "organic" line of goods? Ultimately, Fromartz puts faith in the consumer as arbiter, as he tells a fascinating story and makes sense of a healthy trend in American life. Originally published at $25.00 You save 96% off the cover price!

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