Support Organic

Organic products are becoming increasingly popular. In 1980, the organic food market in the United States was $178 million, but by 2003 it had grown to $10 billion, and it is estimated to be $23 billion for 2008. Organic food is clearly becoming very popular and with good reason. But many people still seem to think of organic as a fad for the excessively health-conscious or the wealthy, not something for the everyman.

In fact, for virtually the entire 10,000 year history of human agriculture, farming methods have been "organic." Modern industrial agriculture (i.e. "non-organic" farming, relying on synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides) is a product primarily of the 20th century. Organic food--meaning food that does not contain synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, growth hormones or antibiotics--is what all food was before industrial agriculture. So probably it's more accurate for us to think of industrial agriculture as the fad.

While all food was "organic" prior to industrial agriculture, the organic movement--and use of the term "organic"--began in the early 20th century, in response to the new methods and philosophy of industrial agriculture.

Around the time of World War I, advances made by German scientists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch led to the development of synthetic fertilizers. Then in the 1940's and 1950's, chemicals developed for World War II were converted into synthetic pesticides. These synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides allowed farmers to increase yields and profits. They also changed the structure of agriculture, favoring large-scale "monocropping" to small-scale, crop-rotating family farming. During the second half of the 20th century, industrial agriculture became the norm in the United States and other industrialized countries.

As this was happening, some looked on and didn't think it was such a good thing. Perhaps these synthetic chemicals should not be mixed into the human food supply or put into the soil. Perhaps treating the farming process like a machine or a factory was not in harmony with the principles of life and ecology. Perhaps these new farming techniques produced short-term gains at the cost of long-term health, for both humans and the planet.

Such concerns led to the emergence of the organic movement, emphasizing sustainable farming that is in harmony with nature. Organic farming creates soil fertility by rotating crops and applying manure and plant compost. Organic farming keeps away pests by attracting insects that prey on the pests and by growing plant strains that are well-adjusted to local conditions. Organic farming seeks to exist in harmony with native plants and animals. Organic farming is above all sustainable, creating an environment that is healthy and balanced--for humans, animals and the planet--and will continue to be so indefinitely.

In the United States, fruits and vegetables labeled "Organic" must: have been produced without the use of synthetic fertilizers or synthetic pesticides; not be genetically modified organisms (GMO).

Animal products, such as meat, dairy and eggs, labeled "Organic" must come from animals who: were given only organic food; were not given growth hormones; were not fed antibiotics; had access to the outdoors; and were not genetically modified organisms.

For more information about the requirements for organic products, check out this FAQ from the Organic Trade Association. And for more information about the organic movement, check out this page from Sustainable Table.

There are many great reasons to support the organic movement and to buy organic products. In the next post, we'll look at one of those reasons more closely.

The Beauty of Nature

Before I get any farther into this blog, I want to make clear that I am not an expert in 'going green.' I'm just an ordinary guy who's trying to change his bad habits into better ones. I grew up in a big city in a very wasteful, environmentally destructive culture. But as an adult, I've traveled a bit and visited places--rain forests, deserts, oceans, coral reefs, mountains, caves--that the human world has not yet overtaken. And they're beautiful--deeply, inexplicably, mysteriously beautiful. Even the most gifted poets the world has ever seen cannot capture this extraordinary beauty in words, so I won't try. But I can say that destroying what remains of these places would be the greatest tragedy in human history. Our existence as a species may or may not be able to go on after that, but I'm convinced that our spirits would be forever broken.

Maybe you already know what I'm talking about. But if not, you might be able to get a sense of it by spending some time, the more the better, in nature.

Try to get as far away as you can, some place where you won't be able to hear a single man-made sound. If you live in the United States, there's a very good chance that you have a National Park or a National Forest within several hours drive of your home (this will be carbon well used!).

If you're up for it, hike out into the park and spend the night in a tent. Or go for a long day-hike. But just make sure to get away from the roads and the visitors' centers. Get out of the World of Man and into the World of Nature.

And when you're there, don't do too much, don't read books, don't spend all your time talking. Just be there, silently, senses fully open, taking in everything around you. Breathe deeply. Listen to every sound. Smell the flowers, the breeze. Look all around you, both near and far. Touch the trees, the rocks, the earth. Soak it all in, feel it deeply. Watch a sunset or a sunrise. If you're lucky, you'll get to see some of the creatures living there, as a guest in their home.

If you can't visit a large natural area, such as a National Park or Forest, then make do with some woods or a park near your home or office. Turn off your mobile and your ipod, close your books and sit silently. Watch the trees move in the breeze, hear the conversations of the birds, notice how the suns' rays drape over it all. Turn down the volume on your thinking, turn up the volume on your sensations and just feel your environment.

There's no substitute for direct experience, but watching documentaries about Earth's natural places can also help to connect us more deeply. A great place to start is the amazing Planet Earth series.

Aside from being enjoyable and good for our physical and mental health, it's so important that we take the time to experience nature, so that we can understand exactly what it is that we're losing. When we really get it, when we really connect with nature and experience its beauty in our heart, then it's impossible not to become an environmentalist. And if we are going to make the changes that must be made to save the ecosystems of this planet and to save our own species, we'll all have to become environmentalists very soon.

Take a Walk

America is a driving culture. We drive everywhere. Sometimes we even get in the car to drive a few blocks, as though we were allergic to walking. But going for a walk can be really pleasant.

My grandmother lives about 3.5 miles from me. Sometimes I drive there, and sometimes I walk. This past weekend, I walked. It took about one hour and twenty minutes each way, compared to fifteen minutes each way driving. But the walk was great.

It was a beautiful autumn day. I enjoyed the incredible colors of the leaves, the fresh air, the songs of birds, the darting to and fro of squirrels hiding acorns, the feeling of the sun on my skin, the sounds of the city, the people I passed. I got some good exercise. I had some quiet time to myself to do some thinking. I took photographs. On the way back, I listened to music. It was a relaxing, refreshing way to spend an afternoon. And I didn't use any gasoline.

Of course, driving seven miles doesn't exactly create an enormous amount of pollution. But it does create some, and every little bit we can reduce helps. Plus, if everybody cut out a little, it would add up to a lot. And, perhaps most important, if we start walking or riding a bike, even just a little, even just once in a while, our mentality starts to change. And as our mentality changes, our waste of energy and our creation of pollution start to decrease dramatically.

And anyway, the walk was much more enjoyable than the drive would have been. Here are a few of the pictures:

Buy Local

Most fruits and vegetables at supermarkets in the United States are grown in California, Florida or Washington, which means that they're doing a lot of traveling from earth to mouth. Sometimes it's unavoidable, as not all places are as fertile as those three states. But often, the same fruits and vegetables that are shipped to us from afar are being grown nearby. This creates an enormous amount of unnecessary pollution that we can greatly decrease by buying local.

In addition to decreasing pollution, buying local also supports small farmers and strengthens rural communities. And local foods are probably going to be fresher, which is one reason that many people believe local foods taste better and are healthier.

There are many ways we can eat more locally produced foods. One is to shop at farmer's markets, where local farmers sell their goods directly to consumers. Another way is to buy directly from farmers. Localharvest.org is a great resource in this, linking consumers with "farmer's markets, family farms and other sources of sustainably grown food" throughout the U.S.

Another option is to participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). In CSA, a group of consumers partners with a local farm. They pay a lump sum to the farmer at the start of each season and then receive regular deliveries of fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, etc. to be picked up at a central location. This system supports local farms, provides consumers with fresh goods and links consumers more closely to the land and to farmers. For more information about CSA, go here. For a list of CSA groups in the U.S., go here.

Another way to buy local foods is to look for them at the grocery store. Some stores, such as Whole Foods, have signs indicating which items were produced locally. If our local store doesn't do this, we can ask them to start.

And when we're trying to buy local at the supermarket, it's important to keep in mind what's in season, because if it's not in season, but it's available, then it must be coming from some place far pretty far away. For a list of what's in season where you live, go here.

Buying local is a big issue for food, but it's not just food. Anything that we can buy locally reduces the pollution costs of long-distance transportation. And often it supports small-scale, family operations that are likely to be more friendly to the environment than large corporations.

But all that being said, we live in a global marketplace, and some of what we have come to need is not produced locally. So it's not realistic for most of us to buy only local products. But it is realistic for almost all of us to buy more things locally, to do a better job of supporting local, family farms and to encourage large businesses, through our words and our dollars, to sell more locally produced goods.

For more information about buying local, here are two useful websites:
Sustainable Table
Food Routes

Heat

Last night, PBS Frontline aired an excellent documentary called Heat. It's about global warming and what governments and corporations are doing (and not doing) to help guide us in the right direction. You can watch it in full here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/heat/view/

Here's the trailer:

Think Mottainai

As we try to change our habits to become more friendly to the environment, the single most important thing we can change is our mentality.

The current mentality of our culture is that the planet's resources are limitless, so we can use as much as we want. And the planet's landfills are equally limitless, so throwing things away is not a problem. When we use gas for our cars or electricity for our homes or electronics, we think only of the monetary cost, what comes out of our pockets. And when we buy things, we don't worry about where they'll go after we throw them away. The trash man comes once a week and everything we don't want disappears, out of sight, out of mind.

This is the old way of thinking about things. Our new way has to be almost the opposite. We need to think of every use of energy, every consumer purchase (all destined one day to become trash), as having a cost, as mattering.

And that's what mottainai is about.

Mottainai (pronounced like the English words 'moat-tie-nigh') is a Japanese word that doesn't translate directly into English, but means something like, 'Earth and what it gives to us are precious, so we should respect what we have and not use things thoughtlessly, we should not throw things away when they still have usefulness, we should be grateful for our environment, let's not be wasteful.'

Here's an example of how it would be used in Japanese: you go to the local farmer's market and buy a few apples, and the salesperson starts to put them in a plastic bag. You smile and say, 'No, thanks. Mottainai.' The salesperson smiles and hands you the apples, which you put in your pockets or in the bag you brought with you. Another example: you leave the water running while brushing your teeth, and your spouse says, 'Mottainai,' and turns the water off.

Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in promoting democracy, women's rights and, especially, environmental protection, has spoken around the world about the need for conservation. She learned of the word mottainai while in Japan in 2005, and has used it since, promoting it as an international word, usable in any language, to express the spirit of the environmental movement.

So let's take her cue and make this word a part of our vocabulary. And, more important, let's try to approach our daily lives in the spirit of mottainai.

The Last Tree

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten
--Cree Native American prophecy

Earth is in crisis. You might not know it from watching the evening news or glancing at the front page of the paper. But when you dig a little deeper, it becomes very obvious, very quickly.

Consider this: more than 80% of Earth's natural forests have been destroyed (in America, over 95% of the original forests are gone); fifty years ago, rain forest covered 14% of Earth's surface, but today it covers only 6%--sixty acres are lost every minute; since 1950, over 90% of the world's large fish have been taken from the ocean; "one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the world's assessed plants now appear on the Red List of endangered plants and animals."

The life system of planet earth is dying. We are dependent on that life system for our existence. If it dies, we die.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, "the most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet," states that, "human actions are depleting Earth's natural capital, putting such strain on the environment that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted."

So why is all this happening?

Well, it's me. And it's you. And it's everyone we know. It's virtually all humans, all over the planet, but especially those of us living in the industrialized world. Our way of life is based on intensive consumption of the resources of the planet and creates an enormous amount of pollution and waste.

We have all grown up with the mindset that Earth's resources are limitless and that Earth is indestructible. Our consumption decisions are usually guided only by our desire for comfort and pleasure, without thought to the environmental impacts.

But our actions do have impacts. The things we buy use resources and create pollution during their production, and they create pollution after we throw them away. The energy that powers our homes, cars and electronics comes from fossil fuels, mainly oil and coal, which cause environmental damage during their extraction from the earth and which cause pollution and global warming when we convert them into usable energy. There is, in fact, an environmental cost to almost everything we do.

This does not mean that we have to reduce our 'carbon footprint' to zero. The only way to do that would be to retreat to the forest and use rocks and sticks to hunt and farm. We're not going to do that. But there is a lot of middle ground between going back to the Stone Age and giving no thought to our consumption of the world. We can all do a lot in our daily lives to reduce our impact on the planet.

And that's what this blog will be about. I hope to share some ideas and information about reducing our impact. There really is a lot that we can do. We just have to take one step at a time. We just have to commit to doing something--even if it's something small--rather than doing nothing. And we need to do it now, so that our children and grandchildren don't have to realize that prophecy about the last tree, so that we can leave them a world that we're not ashamed of.