I really don't think there's a better title for this chapter than "Backing Off". It just exemplifies exactly what McKibben is talking about, scaling back on our demands, our lifestyles, and taking inventory on what you actually need and where that comes from.
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| Channel of distribution for your food |
I think my favorite part in the chapter, (other than the revolutionary war history lesson, I love that stuff), was the bit about farmer's markets. (Learn more about our local farmer's market
here by the way, they open back up in early May.) I love farmer's markets. I mean, fresh food, nice people, usually good weather, what else could you want? McKibben talks about these sort of community building events as essential to changing our mentality about our planet. Fostering relationships within communities not only improves the happiness of those communities, it also allows them to collectively make change for the better. Having a large chain of supply increases the chance for failure, and the size of the chain makes it more likely that the failure will have profound effects. If you buy your strawberries from Russia, or South Korea, or Italy, those strawberries have to be grown, packaged, shipped, and transported to your grocery store from across the ocean. Not only does the increase the energy needed to produce those strawberries, it also allows more things to go wrong in the process. Buying local not only gives your money to local businesses, it also shortens the supply chain. Not to mention that buying locally grown food is a great and healthy way to reduce your carbon footprint. Read more about the benefits of local food
here.
I really agree with McKibben, that we need to get away from our "growth is good" and "this is the way we've always done it" mentalities and move to thinking about sustainably living on the planet we've created for ourselves, about maintaining and reducing what we have, and about changing the scale of our relationships.
So go say hi to your neighbor.
Write to you soon.
Danielle K.
Yes! Great post. I think the "go local" movement has been quite successful in the past five years, though it's going to take a lot to fight against the "growth as fast as possible and at any cost" mentality promoted by the president.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed this chapter but also the farmers market is still happening, I just went this weekend actually! They had quite a bit of stuff too, I even got some cool mushrooms, you should check it out!
ReplyDeleteNo way, I totally thought they shut down for the winter. I will definitely check it out.
DeleteI also focused on farmers markets in my blog as well! They're a good way to buy local and they're a good start in backing away from industrial agriculture. There are a few really nice ones in Grand Rapids (my hometown) that I always like going to in the spring and summer.
ReplyDeleteI really like the things that you brought up about this chapter. Farmer's markets are so much fun and I really liked the picture you chose because it did a great job of illustrating the channels that our food goes through.
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