PeaceWorks is a not-only-for-profit specialty food company that manages to combine production of condiments with peace building. Fostering coexistence through business, they unite people traditionally on the opposite sides of conflict via a shared goal. Together with people who are striving to co-exist, Peaceworks creates and delivers unique and exciting specialty foods.
PeaceWorks currently does business with Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, South Africans, Turks, Indonesians and Sri Lankans.
Innovation
A small American firm, Peaceworks tries to bring people together in areas of conflict to promote peace through commerce. Daniel Lubetzky founded Peaceworks in 1994 after coming up with the idea for his "not-only-for-profit" company straight out of law school. He launched it with about $10,000 dollars of his own money and projected sales for 2005 are $5 million.
Lubetzky kept the plan simple: break down cultural stereotypes by aiding businesses that bring together people with a history of conflict. It's a concept that first led him to pesto in the Middle East, then snack chips made by blacks and whites in South Africa and curry from a women-run factory in Indonesia at which Muslims, Christians and Buddhists work side by side. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, Daniel Lubetzky's purpose in life is clear and instilled with a desire to prevent similar tragedies from occurring. He has always been passionate about resolving the Arab-Israeli conflicts in the Middle East.
PeaceWorks has become the driving force behind its nationwide brands: Meditalia and Bali Spice, which include sauces, spreads and noodles. Meditalia brings Arabs, Egyptians, Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians and Turks together, and Bali Spice products are produced by Buddhists, Christians and Muslims in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Lubetzky's idea is to find companies' whose product appeals to the U.S. specialty food market, then screen them through a list of social requirements.
Impact
Peaceworks helps market and distribute products for Yoel Benesh, owner of Meditalia in the United States, because he agrees to put extra effort toward buying olives from the West Bank and their jars from Arab merchants in Egypt. The 49-year-old Jewish businessman was Peaceworks' first trading partner, but his story is pocked with failures and plain old hardships, reminders of how difficult it can be to work through long-simmering tensions.
Benesh said he hopes his sun-dried tomato spreads and pesto sauces will reach $1 million in sales next year, a mark it hit before violence escalated in the region and revenue dropped off. His factory has also grown from 10 workers before he got involved with Peaceworks to 70 employees today.
Not every peace-making food product works. The company ditched another Israeli/Arab effort around candy bars because it was too difficult to make the bars with all-natural ingredients -- a Peaceworks staple; it dropped the South African snack chips because of high shipping costs for bags that were mostly air; and Peaceworks gave up on salsa from the Chiapas region of Mexico after insurers charged too much to cover shipments from the violence-torn mountain area. As it dealt with these failures, Peaceworks also started to become more like a traditional business that does its charity work through donations. The company's best-selling product, a snack bar called Kind, isn't made by any cooperative venture between conflict-prone groups. Instead 5 percent of its profits go to a foundation that works for Middle East peace through old-fashioned political organizing. But Lubetzky and his partners say they aren't giving up on their vision any time soon.
"First it's a business," Benesh's remaining Arab supplier, Abdullah Ghanim, said through a translator. "Second, it helps the peace. Because if we work together, we become friends, we visit each others' houses."
Inspiration
"My parents taught me about building bridges of understanding across communities, as well as about preventing injustice to any human being," Lubetzky has been quoted as saying.
After years of writing legislative proposals addressing effective ways to promote peace through business, it was a delicious but obscure sundried-tomato spread in Israel that inspired Lubetzky to put his theories to the test. He located the spread's manufacturer--an Israeli Jew--and showed him the economic benefits of working with his neighbors. Lubetzky convinced him to purchase the glass jars from Egypt rather than Portugal, the sundried tomatoes from Turkey instead of Italy, and the olives from Palestinian farmers. Lubetzky then returned to the United States to market the spread. A board of 11 members, including Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen, offered support to get the concept off the ground.
Says Lubetzky, "[Working together] cements relationships between people, humanizes the enemy and gives people a vested interest in preserving those relationships."
The World Inquiry editorial team edited this profile from the original submission of the interviewer or other source. The views expressed do not necessarily represent Case Western Reserve University, the Weatherhead School of Management or the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. More >>
