"Think Globally, Live Locally" (another long post)
The old mantra is usually "Think Global, act local." I think it's a good one, but, like for many people, there are too many associations with radicalism, liberalism, etc. etc., to be so easily swallowed. Even though being environmentally conscious is becoming mainstream (despite it not even being on the political radar in this presidential race), the issue still feels very forced. Despite my reservations about it, I am very actively making changes in how I choose to consume.
The greatest model we have for consumption, for preservation, and for the well-being of our environment is already all around us. It's simply the normal procession of nature, of the natural world around is. A system was devised where, from the soil, all things proceed and return. We eat food, in the most natural environment its excreted back onto the ground where it and other decaying things naturally enrich the soil to grow more food. This is a gross simplification, but already in there there's a natural process of use and recycling. Its the process that makes the world a healthy thing. So long as we stick to man-made model where things are used and tossed out in vast numbers or that are turned into landfills that damage the environment, we will always be heading in a direction that is worse off from where we are.
The only way to truly change things, and on several levels, is to adopt that natural model that the earth already has in place. We are living despite the Earth, not in "harmony" with it. If we change to take on that model then it will be a system that naturally keeps the world as it is, not making it worse off, and also undoing some of the previous damage we've already done.
On a personal level, there's of course a lot of changes that can be made to begin with. Starting with The No Impact Blog there's many things that can be done and many concepts he's incorporated into his lifestyle that can make a difference. The way I see it, though, in my own overly naive and optimistic way, is that we are heading in a direction where we will start living more locally. "Acting" locally implies that we have to be active participants in a quest for change, which would be ideal but its not the way to affect change on a personal level. Living locally will make the difference. It implies that it's a state and a lifestyle, its the aggregate of behaviors and patterns that affect living, acting, and consuming. But these are already changing, and given the trends will only get better.
Thanks to indie music, people are becoming mini-experts, many of them out seeing local acts, their friend's bands, going to fests. The arts are being supported at a ground level and up. I think the age of rockstars is coming to a close. It's becoming more personal, and it's great to see.
I think CSA programs and local farms are going become more popular, or at least having locally supported agriculture is going to become more important. I think this is something that needs active change. If I could start a business in this field right now (and I don't know much about this sort of thing so its probably already been done), it would be collective conglomeration of local farms, (preferably organic) not necessarily a co-op, that distributes to local markets, groceries, and most importantly, as a food service business. In most colleges food services are handled by "service corporations" at Hofstra we had "Lackmann" supplying all the food, places like Fenway Park have a similar corporation behind it. My guess is that their supplies come from large, subsidized, corporate farms that are probably not local, and try to get supplies at the cheapest price for better profit margins. Who knows, maybe the answer is a non-profit organization to handle it but I don't think the market would allow for something non-competitive like that. Either way, if there was an effective distribution, supply chain, and B2B marketing strategy, I think it's something that can be accomplished. (And yes, I hate the way I sound when I use those terms).
The beer market. I always use this example and it's one of my favorites. People who know and like beer buy craft. In Soldotna, Alaska, there's a brewery (Kenai River Brewery that makes some of the best beer I've ever had. The amazing part for me, though, is that a lot of the local businesses have it on tap or draft. The businesses there naturally support each other. In the Berkshires there's the Berkshire Brewery. In Boston there's Harpoon, Sam Adams, Ipswich Ale, and countless others. Buying local crafts you will always get a better product than corporate beer like Bud, Coors, w/e. When local economies support each other through business and consumers we end up both improving the quality of the product and lowering the environmental costs.
BYOBB - BRING YA OWN BROWN BAG. People are starting to use their own bags to carry their products, and Whole Foods is making a pioneer step by getting rid of plastic bags altogether.
Vegetarians and Vegans. About 1/4 people in the US are overweight...or obese, I forget which exactly. But the trend in this century is for people to start moving to urban areas. All over the world people are moving to the city. The sad part is, of course, it's much harder to have a sustainable lifestyle in the city. The brilliant part is that cities tend to be centers of culture and cultures. This is important because people become naturally more "cultured", accepting, and smarter (naive optimism, once again). Included in this is a culture of food. Eating and being healthy is becoming more and more important. Firstly because it's the better choice to begin with, but its also because a lot of indie kids are veg. Healthy food is being done a lot better, its not as much of a niche market as it was, and so long as more and more people are turning healthier and putting out better and better products it will keep improving.
Bottled water. Two years ago I looked around my marketing class at hofstra and saw what people were drinking. Overwhelmingly it was bottled water. It's a step better than soft drinks and that's well and good. But better than that, the majority was all Poland Spring water. I think people generally realize stuff like Dasani is a total sham. The movement to get people to drink tap water is getting started and it can only get better. It's the cheaper option, it just needs to be marketed and repackaged better. So when Nalgene makes an awesome and popular bottle, or better yet, Sigg makes an even better design and with better and more eco-friendly material like so:
Then that tap water all the sudden changes into something better.
Apple, Google, Facebook. In our business courses we look at businesses like Wal-Mart and Starbucks and we talk about branding and all that nonsense. It's bullshit, it's those internet companies that we need to be looking at. Without a doubt Apple is making the best computers and MP3 players out there. Sure they've branded it and marketed into hell and back so they have the most iconic product in the last decade. But the important mark here is that they are also making the highest quality product. They have raised the bar over what companies can offer to us and expect us to actually buy. Google offers free online services, the company treats its employees unbelievably well, there's no guise of professionalism in their culture, and its all at the expense of other businesses, not consumers. Once again they also happen to offer the highest quality product as well. Gmail is the best e-mail service out there and they pioneered the massive inboxes that we see today. All of this means simply this, when we buy things that aren't local they have to be high quality. That's the trend these companies have developed and more than anything it changes how we behave as consumers.
Ultimately I think the government needs to get behind these sort of things. Smaller farms need to start getting the subsidies, not the large corporate farms. Recycling and new energy programs need to become subsidized and improved so it actually becomes a source of work and the more environmentally-friendly choices for businesses (recycled papers products for ex.) actually become cheaper. Our public schools need to start getting involved in not offering unhealthy food products at all. Consumer rights are great, but when it's government sponsored, as far as I'm concerned, the better and healthier choice needs to be made for the consumer. No Impact man has talked about it a lot and it's true. The better choices just need to become more economically viable maybe through subsidies, maybe through tax breaks. The problem is government paralysis over the issue. The red-tape is in the way and despite the overwhelming amount of science behind it, it's become a party issue mired in politics and undoubtedly lobbyists as well. Ultimately it will have to become politically viable first before it proceeds to being economically viable.
The first step is to start living locally.
The greatest model we have for consumption, for preservation, and for the well-being of our environment is already all around us. It's simply the normal procession of nature, of the natural world around is. A system was devised where, from the soil, all things proceed and return. We eat food, in the most natural environment its excreted back onto the ground where it and other decaying things naturally enrich the soil to grow more food. This is a gross simplification, but already in there there's a natural process of use and recycling. Its the process that makes the world a healthy thing. So long as we stick to man-made model where things are used and tossed out in vast numbers or that are turned into landfills that damage the environment, we will always be heading in a direction that is worse off from where we are.
The only way to truly change things, and on several levels, is to adopt that natural model that the earth already has in place. We are living despite the Earth, not in "harmony" with it. If we change to take on that model then it will be a system that naturally keeps the world as it is, not making it worse off, and also undoing some of the previous damage we've already done.
On a personal level, there's of course a lot of changes that can be made to begin with. Starting with The No Impact Blog there's many things that can be done and many concepts he's incorporated into his lifestyle that can make a difference. The way I see it, though, in my own overly naive and optimistic way, is that we are heading in a direction where we will start living more locally. "Acting" locally implies that we have to be active participants in a quest for change, which would be ideal but its not the way to affect change on a personal level. Living locally will make the difference. It implies that it's a state and a lifestyle, its the aggregate of behaviors and patterns that affect living, acting, and consuming. But these are already changing, and given the trends will only get better.
Thanks to indie music, people are becoming mini-experts, many of them out seeing local acts, their friend's bands, going to fests. The arts are being supported at a ground level and up. I think the age of rockstars is coming to a close. It's becoming more personal, and it's great to see.
I think CSA programs and local farms are going become more popular, or at least having locally supported agriculture is going to become more important. I think this is something that needs active change. If I could start a business in this field right now (and I don't know much about this sort of thing so its probably already been done), it would be collective conglomeration of local farms, (preferably organic) not necessarily a co-op, that distributes to local markets, groceries, and most importantly, as a food service business. In most colleges food services are handled by "service corporations" at Hofstra we had "Lackmann" supplying all the food, places like Fenway Park have a similar corporation behind it. My guess is that their supplies come from large, subsidized, corporate farms that are probably not local, and try to get supplies at the cheapest price for better profit margins. Who knows, maybe the answer is a non-profit organization to handle it but I don't think the market would allow for something non-competitive like that. Either way, if there was an effective distribution, supply chain, and B2B marketing strategy, I think it's something that can be accomplished. (And yes, I hate the way I sound when I use those terms).
The beer market. I always use this example and it's one of my favorites. People who know and like beer buy craft. In Soldotna, Alaska, there's a brewery (Kenai River Brewery that makes some of the best beer I've ever had. The amazing part for me, though, is that a lot of the local businesses have it on tap or draft. The businesses there naturally support each other. In the Berkshires there's the Berkshire Brewery. In Boston there's Harpoon, Sam Adams, Ipswich Ale, and countless others. Buying local crafts you will always get a better product than corporate beer like Bud, Coors, w/e. When local economies support each other through business and consumers we end up both improving the quality of the product and lowering the environmental costs.
BYOBB - BRING YA OWN BROWN BAG. People are starting to use their own bags to carry their products, and Whole Foods is making a pioneer step by getting rid of plastic bags altogether.
Vegetarians and Vegans. About 1/4 people in the US are overweight...or obese, I forget which exactly. But the trend in this century is for people to start moving to urban areas. All over the world people are moving to the city. The sad part is, of course, it's much harder to have a sustainable lifestyle in the city. The brilliant part is that cities tend to be centers of culture and cultures. This is important because people become naturally more "cultured", accepting, and smarter (naive optimism, once again). Included in this is a culture of food. Eating and being healthy is becoming more and more important. Firstly because it's the better choice to begin with, but its also because a lot of indie kids are veg. Healthy food is being done a lot better, its not as much of a niche market as it was, and so long as more and more people are turning healthier and putting out better and better products it will keep improving.
Bottled water. Two years ago I looked around my marketing class at hofstra and saw what people were drinking. Overwhelmingly it was bottled water. It's a step better than soft drinks and that's well and good. But better than that, the majority was all Poland Spring water. I think people generally realize stuff like Dasani is a total sham. The movement to get people to drink tap water is getting started and it can only get better. It's the cheaper option, it just needs to be marketed and repackaged better. So when Nalgene makes an awesome and popular bottle, or better yet, Sigg makes an even better design and with better and more eco-friendly material like so:
Then that tap water all the sudden changes into something better.
Apple, Google, Facebook. In our business courses we look at businesses like Wal-Mart and Starbucks and we talk about branding and all that nonsense. It's bullshit, it's those internet companies that we need to be looking at. Without a doubt Apple is making the best computers and MP3 players out there. Sure they've branded it and marketed into hell and back so they have the most iconic product in the last decade. But the important mark here is that they are also making the highest quality product. They have raised the bar over what companies can offer to us and expect us to actually buy. Google offers free online services, the company treats its employees unbelievably well, there's no guise of professionalism in their culture, and its all at the expense of other businesses, not consumers. Once again they also happen to offer the highest quality product as well. Gmail is the best e-mail service out there and they pioneered the massive inboxes that we see today. All of this means simply this, when we buy things that aren't local they have to be high quality. That's the trend these companies have developed and more than anything it changes how we behave as consumers.
Ultimately I think the government needs to get behind these sort of things. Smaller farms need to start getting the subsidies, not the large corporate farms. Recycling and new energy programs need to become subsidized and improved so it actually becomes a source of work and the more environmentally-friendly choices for businesses (recycled papers products for ex.) actually become cheaper. Our public schools need to start getting involved in not offering unhealthy food products at all. Consumer rights are great, but when it's government sponsored, as far as I'm concerned, the better and healthier choice needs to be made for the consumer. No Impact man has talked about it a lot and it's true. The better choices just need to become more economically viable maybe through subsidies, maybe through tax breaks. The problem is government paralysis over the issue. The red-tape is in the way and despite the overwhelming amount of science behind it, it's become a party issue mired in politics and undoubtedly lobbyists as well. Ultimately it will have to become politically viable first before it proceeds to being economically viable.
The first step is to start living locally.