The Heuvos to Call a Bluff

Fifth street just hit. And he bet. What do you do? Sometimes, you just don't think that they have a hand, much less the nuts. You look at the history, you look at the person, and you look at yourself. And the story just quite doesn't add up. This has to be a bluff. There has to be something awry. You think that they're trying to pull one over on you. This has to be a bluff. You don't have the pot odds to call. Your hand isn't that strong. But you just have that feeling. This has to be a bluff. Do you call? Sometimes you're right, and look like a genius. Sometimes, you look like a donkey. Do you call? There's no shame to folding. It's a safe play, and may even be the right play. Most people would fold to this bet. Do you call?

If any of you guys who read here haven't wandered over to IJAB, head over there and take a peek. Particularly at the January 2, 2006 posting and comments. I think that we've come to the consensus that there's often a disjoint between the things that we profess to believe and the things that we do on an everyday level.

Here's the challenge for people who profess to be socially conscious, to be Christian, to be different in a good way: Be aware of the implications of what you do as an everyday consumer. This is what I do, so this is what is at the forefront of my mind.

I'm not saying that people are evil. I do think that people are lazy and unanalytical. My challenge isn't saying that people are hypocritical. That implies some sort of active choice, I think. My challenge suggests that people are unaware because they haven't ever stopped to think about the implications. But once you think about it, then it becomes an active choice.

My challenge involves the everyday, the things that we don't think about, the eggs and sausage that we eat in the morning and the coffee that we drink at work. It involves the furniture that we sit on, the clothes that we wear, and the cars that we drive.

Something as simple as eggs can be rather interesting to think about. Where do the eggs come from? Is it a large farm that sends all sorts of bio-pollutants into the surrounding water? Does it draw an unnecessarily high amount of water? How far were the eggs shipped to the distributor? How about the wholesaler? And how much further to the store? What's the cost (both financial and environmental) for those eggs? Are there alternatives? More and more there has been a discounting of the "organic" term. More interesting (and more important to the socially conscious consumer) are terms like local and sustainable. A recent NY Times article describes this phenomenon in an interesting way. Note that Doc Hatfield is the founder of the Country Natural Beef cooperative.


Mr. Hatfield was just as pleased about an unexpected byproduct of selling locally: the bond forged between rural and urban residents.

"Most of the ranchers are rural, religious, conservative Republicans," Mr. Hatfield said. "And most of the customers are urban, secular, liberal Democrats. When it comes to healthy land, healthy food, healthy people and healthy diets, those tags mean nothing. Urbanites are just as concerned about open spaces and healthy rural communities as people who live there. When ranchers get to the city, they realize rural areas don't have a corner on values. I think that's what we are most excited about."


Why is it that the founder of the co-op (who is likely one of the rural, religious, conservatives) finds that his customers are urban, secular, and liberal? I think that part of this is the general lack of concern towards the concrete. While some of the more esoteric questions are worth thinking about, I think that too much energy is spent debating things like creationism, for example. And not enough spent on the day-to-day reality that we're in. My challenge to you? Shift gears down from 5th gear to 1st gear when you're thinking about faith, religion, philosophy, etc. Instead of considering the underlying questions of the universe all the time, think about less sexy ideas, like where it is your eggs come from. And then if you find that there's something to it, then we'll think about potential changes to how we live.

-Chairman