In the 1960’s, the hippie movement grew up as a rebellion against the intertwining of politics and capitalism, which it called “The Establishment.” The pot-smoking hippies accused The Establishment of putting the pursuit of profit above everything, to the detriment of every aspect of our society, from the environment to our access to recorded music.

Flash forward to today. It turns out the pot-smoking hippies were right about a lot of stuff. As pot is becoming increasingly legalized across the country, today’s generation of socially conscious activists can be found inside the business establishment. They’re a part of a movement called Conscious Capitalism.

Conscious Capitalism says we can make and sell products for a profit, but do it in a way that is consciously aware of who makes the product, what’s in the product, and how the product is marketed and sold. Locally, a great example of conscious capitalism was Naked Pizza. It was an attempt to curb the country’s obesity epidemic by making one of its contributors into a healthy option.

Naked Pizza was born in New Orleans. Its co-founder was Robbie Vitrano. Robbie’s contributions to New Orleans entrepreneurship are numerous and legendary. And now he’s back with not one but two socially conscious products: Good Spread - a peanut butter; and Uncanny Wellness - a company that is finding unique ways of delivering the legal derivative of cannabis, CBD.

Dr Bill Accousti is an orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. He’s an Associate professor of Orthopedic Surgery at LSU Health Sciences Center. And Dr Bill is the creator of Dr. Bill’s Syrup.

Dr Bills Syrup is a unique blend of maple syrup and cane syrup. You can find Dr Bill’s Syrup at a number of places, including some Rouse’s supermarkets and well-known New Orleans restaurants. Because Dr Bill is a proponent of bone health, and aware of the vitamin deficiency that erodes it, each serving of Dr Bill’s Syrup has a full day’s supply of Vitamin D.

One of the most cliched pieces of advice in marketing is, “Build a better mousetrap.” In other words, take a pedestrian product that everybody needs and make some change to it that will make it more attractive than the currently available options. You might not think there's much you could do to improve peanut butter, cane syrup, or maple syrup. And you probably didn’t think about taking your favorite drink and adding CBD to it. This conversation might not change your life, but it could sure change your breakfast.

This episode of Out to Lunch was recorded in the wine room at Commander's Palace. Out to Lunch You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at our website. And meet another two fascinating New Orleanians around the lunch table, wind-power engineer Hiram Mechling and designer Caroline Landry Farouki.

 

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