A couple of weeks ago, I became enraged when the Deal of the Week at my local Save-On Foods was on US imported apples. Since a ten minute walk in any direction from that very store takes me past at least a half dozen apple trees, and since everyone I know with apple trees can’t handle all the fruit, I found this outrageous.

I felt I had to do something! The store was running a customer survey at the time, so I prepared to launch a crusade, calling on everyone to use the survey to let the company know how unacceptable this was, and how much we want to see them carrying local produce in-season.Apples 2

But before I jumped in, a little voice told me to pause. I posted to my Facebook asking some local food experts about it. Some were on board. But some sounded a warning. They had been down this road with the supermarkets. They had learned that it’s a complex issue, with many barriers to offering the local produce. They had seen the stores stock local produce, only to have it go bad on the shelves due to a number of factors.

Yelling at the stores en masse might do a bit of good, but the more I heard from these wise folks, the more I got the sense that my plan was oversimplified and not likely to do much other than provide me with a sense of righteousness. That, my friends, ain’t the Savvy Do Gooder way.

So although the blog posts were already written, I scuttled the crusade plan. It’s not enough to do something. It’s important it have a fair chance of succeeding and, at the very least, do little harm.

But am I giving up on the whole issue? Heck, no! My motivation hasn’t changed. What needed to change was my approach. Whatever the goal, changing the plan isn’t giving up. Sometimes, going back to the drawing board is exactly the right thing to do.

So I have a new plan. A more local, demand-side idea that might help make more use of all those lovely local apples. Stay tuned. I’ll definitely let you know how it goes.