Just say YES! to a food revolution!

Are any of you as hooked on YES! magazine as I am? I sometimes feel funny reading things that just reinforce my beliefs and behaviors, but I looooooove it’s emphasis on possibility and opportunity— it’s hard in these times to keep a positive vibe on discussions affecting the environment and our shared global future. Especially when we’re witnessing natural disasters like the flooding in Pakistan, facing bizarre weather scenarios, and on the verge of new famine in developing nations around the world as food security and sovereignty are vulnerable every day. Woof, friends. Throw in some uncomfortable jokes about the apocalypse in 2012 and ka-blewey, we could use some light up in here!

This month features Anna Lappé writing about identifying the pillars of good food in the age of greenwashing.  Have you been to your grocery store lately and seen the faux-wood signage? The green labels proclaiming things are “natural?” These are marketing ploys to help sell specific products as premium, without necessarily engaging in responsible practices. Sometimes at the grocery I think to myself “do people fall for this?” then realize I am just as gullible, too, with the pretty brown wrappers in my basket and realize I have to get back to work on making sure my choices are the best choices.

Lappé asserts there are three “pillars” to the food revolution that we can easily think about in order to evaluate our choices.

1- ECOLOGY – Focusing on the relationship of living things, natural systems, and resource allocation, an ecological-focus reminds us that each choice we make has a consequence to the natural world. Food choices that are truly sustainable allow nature to work as it is designed, instead of squeezing every last ounce of life out of seed, soil, and water resources.

2- COMMUNITY – Food production is essentially a community endeavor when you really think about it. Communities rely on the common land to produce enough sustenance to keep the population alive. As our food system has been corporatized, we have increased the distance between seed and stomach, increasing the number of factors influencing our food security, and increasing the likelihood that something may go wrong. Oh yeah, like the OVER HALF A BILLION EGGS RECALLED THIS WEEK. Woof again, y’all.

3- FAIRNESS – this one is about making sure everyone at all levels of the food system, producers, workers, etc. get treated fairly and that all folks have access to healthy food. Currently there are urban food deserts where folks don’t have access to fresh food outside of convenience stores. And while progress is being made, like the example of NYC’s fresh food carts last summer, many still lack adequate access.

What would you add to these three?

It’s easy to get started using these criteria when evaluating food purchases. Occasionally you may need to do a little research and you won’t get it right every time (I still don’t, either), but it’s important to keep moving toward making the right choices for yourself, your health, our communities, and our earth. Knowing you’re making good choices tastes really good. Promise.

Sunshine and compost, friends!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Create a Brighter Planet!

Happy Twenty Dime! (it’s what I’m calling 2010, it’s so much more upbeat!)

I hope your New Year’s and Earth Day resolutions are well on their way to being successful! One new thing I’m trying this year, in addition to my food paradigm shift toward healthier eating, is finding new and creative ways to lesson my footprint and track it. While I am pretty happy most of the time knowing I’m doing better than average, I still like to run a check and balance on myself. Is it masochism? Probably not, just more incentive to show folks that it’s possible. Maybe a little masochism. Just for good measure.

Anyhoo, I am intrigued by carbon footprint calculators, but have joked about how there needed to be a Weight Watchers for carbon consumption, so that you had more tracking in real time.

One place I found is the website brighterplanet.com. Named the Smallbusiness of the Year by Treehugger.com, Brighter Planet gives you a place to track your behaviors that cut your carbon emissions (drip dry your dishes! eat local food! ride share!) while at the same time tracking how often you do them (once, thrice/week, all week) in order to get precise calculations. While I’m new at it, I hope after a while I can start noticing habits I can improve based on their trove of tips an ideas, some that I hope to try and share here.

I initially went to the site to vote for a friend of mine’s solar panel project (full disclosure) which is competing for funding this month. After I registered (you have to in order to vote) I started looking around and thought it was a site worthy of mention. Check out their full list of projects to vote for here, and you get three votes to spread around any way you choose! I was impressed they have (non-voting) projects in the works building methane digesters and wind turbines– two solutions that can be part of an overall smart energy strategy.

I’ve already started seeing what I can add to my carbon footprint log to reduce what I’ve contributed in 2010 (twentydime)!

BB

Popularity: 3% [?]

Earth Days Movie

This past weekend (November 2o, 2009, to be exact), filmmaker Robert Stone introduced a showing of his newest film, Earth Days.

In Robert’s own words, he wanted to make a movie “not about the present, not about the future, not doom and gloom, but about how we got here.” In doing so, he hoped to show how today, politics tends to be the issue when it comes to environmentalism, and he also hopes that movie will “point a way forward.”

I’m not a professional movie reviewer, in fact, I go to movies less often than your typical hermit, but I’ll do my best here to give this film it’s due.

Stone immediately lays politics out as part of his statement, as the opening scene shows statements about the environment being made by presidents starting with John F. Kennedy, all the way through George W. Bush (who’s statements on the environment for his entire eight-year tenure in office were limited to, apparently, “We are addicted to oil.” Duh.).

Stone then introduces nine “pioneer” environmentalists, each with a different background and modus operandi:

• “The Radical” – Stephanie Mills
• “The Conservationist” – Stewart Udall
• “The Astronaut” – Rusty Schweickart
• “The Biologist” – Paul Ehrlich
• “The Motivator” – L. Hunter Lovins
• “The Futurist” – Stewart Brand
• “The Organizer” – Denis Hayes
• “The Politician” – Paul (Pete) McCloskey
• “The Forecaster” – Dennis Meadows

The film speaks of some of the typical “demons” of the environmental movement, including the interstate highway system and automobiles, and theorizes that one of the core problems of the environmental movement is that it asks human beings to move outside of their instinctual “reaction” mode. Early humans faced many risks, and those who survived were the ones who, when faced with immediate threats or opportunities, made a choice rooted in the moment – without having to consider the long-term consequences of their actions. In other words, “cavemen,” when faced with a woolly mammoth, ran. They didn’t have to consider where to run, nor what they would do once they escaped the creature. Conventional business works – even today – in much the same way. Short-term considerations are most important, if the long-term is even thought about at all.

So the film indeed shows a history of the environmental movement, from Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” to the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and beyond. It chronicles the “utopia/Back to the Land” movement, where people left the “civilized” world and attempted to live completely off the grid and separate from society at large. And it also chronicles the failure, in general, of that offshoot of the movement.

The breakthrough moment of the evening, of the film, and of the environmental movement itself was stated by Hunter Lovins, who does not mince words: “The world around us is pretty much the world we’re gonna have, and we have to work with that or we’re gonna lose.” This recognition was the impetus for so many groups working together toward the same goal and the launch of the first Earth Day – as well as all the Earth Days that have followed.

To finish up the film, Rusy Schweickart talks about his concept of humanity needing to move away from the idea of the Earth taking care of us to an idea of us having to take care of the Earth. I think that this is a fitting close, and actually is a very exciting and hopeful statement. I think that the concept is a great metaphor to life in general.

The idea of “Mother Earth” keeps us mired in childhood – humanity as infant and child. But as infants and children get older, they “need” their mother less and less – or at least they think they need their mother less and less. Teenagers begin to rebel and feel out their limitations, sometimes destructively. This is the stage I feel humanity is in today – and was in when the environmental movement truly appeared on the scene.

But tomorrow – tomorrow humanity moves into adulthood. When we realize that our mother gave of herself everything she could to get us where we are today, asking for nothing in return. And because of that, we have a duty – even a need – to ensure that she is taken care of. Even if we still think that we don’t need our mother, we make sure she is well taken care of for the rest of her life. Humanity’s next step is this one, and it’s a great way to think about our human condition – the same as the span of lifetime, except over millions or billions of lifetimes.

In the talkback after the screening, Director Robert Stone stated that it seems like the movement has moved from one of grassroots activism putting pressure on government, to being led by scientists, politicians, and career activists, but losing the grassroots.

In summary – Earth Days discusses the successes as well as the failures of the environmental movement, since before it was even considered a movement. But it certainly does point us in a direction for the future:

1. individuals are the ones who make the biggest impact and show that as humans we are far more cohesive in our support of the Earth than the media and politicians and pundits make it seem.
2. we need to work together on the big picture instead of in seeming opposition on smaller and smaller “niche” issues.
3. we need to change what people use to live instead of trying to change how they live. Human nature is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to change. Products and services, however, change on a daily basis. It will be much easier to make it unquestionably superior to use products and consume services that are environmentally-friendly than to keep using polluting, unsustainable, conventional products and services.

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley