This was originally published 3/30/07 at 5:18 PM, which was Friday evening, so I bumped it up to the top of the blog.
I want to talk about the environment. This is one of those issues that really shouldn’t be partisan, so I want to explore why, I think, it is.
I think there are a couple of factors at work here. The most obvious is that the people who tend to be active in the environmental movement also tend to have other views that are at odds with the conservative movement. Many conservatives, this blogger included, tend to eye the environmental movement with a great deal of suspicion that it is a front for imposing anti-business, anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, and anti-progress legislation, among other things. (Funny how those folks are often called progressive.)
I am personally much more environmentally conscience than most conservatives that I know, including my own husband. I will have to admit, though, that most of it started out with my own benefit in mind, not the collect good of the environment.
I use all natural dish soap, laundry soap, cosmetics, shampoos, household cleaners, even bug repellent (Burt’s Bees. It works awesome and smells like herbal tea). I garden organically, buy organically raised, hormone-free meats, rBST-free milk (since way before it was popular), and stuff like that. Those things are for my health, though. I am, as my sister calls it, freakishly sensitive to environmental contaminants.
When I started living like that, though, I started to realize how harmful chemicals, pesticides, and cleaners are to the environment. I also started to realize how important it is to be aware of not only what we put into our bodies, but also what we put into our environment.
It has raised my level of awareness about how anything I do will affect the planet.
Since everyone is affected by what others do to the environment, I think this is more than just a personal issue, but I do not think is warrants a heavy-handed government solution.
As people are becoming more environmentally aware and more people are calling for environmentally friendly products, the market is providing solutions. That is what the left does not seem to get about the free-market - we control it with our buying power.
The anti-business brigade always says that all big corporations care about is money, but they never seem to stop and think about where that money comes from - consumers.
If we all put our money where our mouths are, so to speak, and buy environmentally friendly products, we will see strange things start to happen. Before we know it, every grocery store will have a natural foods section - wait, that already happened. Kellogg’s will start making organic cereal - wait, that already happened, too. Okay, well, before you know it, I will be able to buy organic cotton pajamas for my kids at Wal-Mart - oh, man! That already happened, too.
The key is educating people and convincing them to buy “green” products, not for the government to legislate personal behavior. (Now, why does that phrase sound familiar?)
To be continued…
PS, that Wal-Mart link is a great read.
Note: I just Googled “Free-Market Environmentalism” after I published this and found that it has a whole Wikipedia page! (I haven’t read it yet.) Can I ever coin a new phrase? Sheesh!
Okay, it’s a book, too. Man, I really need to read more!
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:57 am
Nice, thoughtful post, Charity. And hopelessly naive, as usual. A few points to ponder…
Did it ever occur to you that just about every ‘green’ thing corporate America does is really just something to correct something it’s responsible for screwing up in the first place? (Burger King was a classic example).
Second, in regards to organics…less pesticides in the soil and our bodies is a really good thing.. but part of the other really good thing about organics are the support it gives to small, local agriculture. I won’t buy Dole organics, because large-scale agribusiness still creates much environmental damage and still puts a lot of small farmers out of business. And much of theat supposed ‘organic’ Walmart stuff is coming from China and other places where we cannot guarantee if true organic practices are being followed Read this white paper that shed some light on what Walmart is really doing, and the ramifications. For example:
“The one thing we do know about Wal-Mart’s centralized purchasing is that it will cut out small
and medium-size organic producers around the country who cannot compete on price with these
industrial behemoths. And in the case of food security and food safety the downside of
consolidating a large percentage of our nation’s production, of any given commodity, in the
hands of one corporate entity, or centralizing production in any given locale, has clearly been
illustrated by this year’s spinach debacle.”
And seriously, hardly out of the gate, and Wal-mart’s already lying and screwing it up. And in typical right-wing fashion, instead of addressing the problem, they attack the messenger. Read the white paper all about Wal-mart’s strategy. It’s obviously suckered you. It blows my mind how much you trust these corporations that really just see you as another $$$ and nothing more, and will say whatever it is they think you need to hear to keep coming back. Seriously, is there anything Wal-mart could do that wouldn’t keep you shopping there? Last time I checked, they were still using one of the bedrocks of the free-market, exploitive cheap Chinese labor. They’re gettin hit left and right for discriminatory and unlawful labor practices. THey’re getting lots of bad P.R. so now they do something like this.Would Jesus buy his robe at Walmart? I think not.
Philosophically, I have a serious problem with the commodification of just about everything, especially the basic human needs. THe criticisms in the Wiki article are indeed valid. I don’t want a huge corporation controlling the water supply (which is happening in many parts of the country and world). Next thing you know, they put the squeeze on the gov’t, and you’re not allowed to have a well anymore and HAVE to buy your water from them. Screw that. And what’s really pathetic about the whole deal is it puts MONEY, and the acquisition of, as a primary human value, often above many others. Public needs should be owned by the public. Period.
Another thing.. if you study history and anthropology seriously, you’ll see that modern man(especially Western man) has long had an adversarial role with nature - it is something to be conquered, and men are seen as something outside and apart of nature instead of something that needs to coexist within nature. That ‘God giving dominion over the plants and animals’ bullshit in Genesis is partly responsible for this, but nonetheless, you have HUGE swaths of the population that either have no connection with nature because they’ve lived apart from it fro so long, and others who just don’t give a shit about how their actions impact the whole picture. There are much more of them than not. So are we supposed to wait another 1000 years for the free market to help them catch up? We don’t have that kind of time. The hard truth is many, many peoples’ behavior adversely affects the environment, and some don’t know, and many just don’t care. And as environmental damage increases, steps need to be taken. If human behavior(which includes willful ignorance) is part of the problem, something needs to be done about it that is more than a ‘market based solution’, considering it’s the market that’s responsible for many of those problems in the first place.
Have you ever heard of ‘greenwashing’? It’s the typical corporate bullshit where they try to make you think they’re being good environmental corporate citizens, when it’s really not the case. Exxon Mobil does this all the time with their advertising. I’d recommend ‘Earth for Sale’ by Brian Tokar, he writes about the various ways they do this.
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Another thing I thought of… yes, all of the big supermarkets now have a natural foods section. It is indeed a big thing, because perhaps those who think Hamburger Helper is a healthy way to feed their family might realize there are other options, so I am not begrudging the supermarkets having them. Some people will start to realize that healthy food ain’t just for hippies anymore.
But my parter is one of the people who runs the Plainfield Co-op, so I witness first hand the issues facing our food supply and how it affects the environment. And that once again brings home the intent, which my or may not matter to you. The intent of these big supermarkets is primarily one of profit. The intent of the co-op is to provide healthy food to a community, all the while supporting LOCAL farms and companies whenever possible. If I can save 25 cents by buying something in the natural food section at Shaws, that money is still going to a British mega corp that has no concern for what goes on in my community, other than its ability to keep shopping there. The co-op invests in the community, has educational seminars about health and farming, and gives back to the community. Nobody is getting rich from the co-op selling its food.I seriously doubt Walmart will be buying anything from our many local organic VT farms. Of course, if money is the primary value here, then this argument is unimportant to you, as it is to most free-market fundies. I guess what I’m trying to say is to many of us there are more important values than making money. Like healthy local communities. Money is important, but when it’s the guiding motivation for good behavior, instead of doing something ,because it’s the right thing to do, that is not cool,and it’s not sincere.
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
This is in response to your second comment. I haven’t had the time to type out my response to your first on yet.
The thing you don’t seem to realize is that there are other priorities that also take money and I would like to do the right thing for my self and my family and the earth, but I have limits.
I stay at home and homeschool because that is a value that I have that is more important than money. My husband works a decent paying job, but not high-paying enough to make up for the lost income of me staying home - because having him home at 5:30 is a value that we have that is more important than money.
I am not willing to sacrifice those values to be able to afford to shop at a co-op when I can save money at the supermarket. I do sometimes shop at local stores though, and I always buy local if I can - King Arthur (which is sold at Costco), Cabot (which is sold at Wal-Mart), Stony Field Farm (I know, that’s NH), local syrup, local farm produce from Mazza’s (which is sold at Hannaford, but I like to drive out to the farm stand), Seventh Generation (which they also sell at the supermarkets), among others.
Wait, what? How can local products be sold at big stores? I’m so confused.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:21 am
I have to add, Yes, I know that those are not all organic products, but they are all natural and locally produced.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
And it’s good and commendable that you do that. And I am certainly well aware of how our incomes affect what we are able to feed our families. The real crime in all of this is thay good, local healthy food costs MORE than the cheap Betty Crocker crap (I understand why, of course, it’s just not right).
And yes, the supermarkets carry local things, but what does it come down to - 0.001% of what they carry?
I’ve been there. And I realize how had it can be to put food on your family, as Bush once said. I just wish that eating healthy and local didn’t have to be a luxury. One shouldn’t have to be single with no kids and a decent job to do that.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
You basically made my point for me. If people let the bigger companies know that they value local products, or at least want the national brands to uses sustainable practices, it will not be a luxury; it will be affordable.
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