Out of Egypt:

affordable sustainability

I was thinking again this morning of the paradoxes of our culture and of how we have made it easier to be unhealthy than healthy, easier to destroy the environment rather than to be a part of it. I was wondering how we could take organic living out of the province of the elite and make it accessible to everybody. I am looking for affordable sustainability.

This is a good question! I think that the first thing to do is to realize that sustainability will, inevitably, involve sacrifices. To ask how we can keep living our current lifestyle, but make it sustainable, is the wrong question. For example, we could allot food budgets to buy less food, but food that was sustainably grown; we could quit eating meat several times a week, and eat it once a week or less. The real dilemma facing us, I think, is how we can work to build homes and communities on the basis of consuming as little as possible from outside the home/community. (As a side note, I'm not sure that chemical farming - as distasteful as it is - has nearly the environmental impact that transporting food does, nor the potential for calamity that mass monoculture does.) Also, abstaining from consumption, by its very nature, is something that almost everyone can do, and one that inculcates spiritual discipline. I'm skeptical of the organic movement for that very reason - it seems to be looking for a way to sanctify overconsumption. There is no way to do that, though.

Posted by: Adam Parsons at September 30, 2007 9:33 PM

That makes a lot of sense, Adam. Sometime on here I'll have to share my idea for a sustainable "fast-food" chain featuring primarily grains.

You should check out the More-with-Less Cookbook. My mom cooked from it (though not exclusively) for years. It's a work from the Mennonite Central Community that follows sustainable principles of diet - less meat, more grains, as you said. I need to get back into using it; I'm spoiled though, I admit - I love my meat.

Posted by: Evan Donovan at October 1, 2007 8:22 PM

I've been mulling over this thought for awhile as well. I don't what milk prices are up in Boston, but down here milk prices have shot up in recent weeks. The "premium" brand (Mayfield) is over $5/gallon. Bi-Lo's "generic" brand (Southern Home) is $3.99. Organic milk is $4.99/half gallon. I've found that Organic milk is actually more satisfying than "regular" milk and its worth the additional investment. One other cultural element is fast pace of everyday life. We speed on the road, are convinced that DSL is the only way to go, "multi-task" is now part of the vernacular, the parking spaces at the back of the lot are always empty except for around Christmas when they are the only ones available, eat-in places like Applebee's now have "to go" menus, and I could go on. The quickest, easiest things are the cheapest ($1 menus at fast food restaurants rarely have grilled items on them. 95% of these items are fried).
With quality comes investment. In order to maximize our assests we do need to work together and slow down. This just isn't a popular idea in our "gimme now" culture.
There are million examples within the body of Christ that show this to be true, but I'll just give one: having friends pick you up at/take you to an airport two hours away. Sure, there are quicker alternatives and ones that are more "user-friendly" (co-ordinating 3 different schedules is a little on the challenging side), but those alternatives cost some $$$. Its much easier when you just work together and compromise.
I could go on and on and on about how much individuals just need to lay aside their pride and self-fullfilling attitudes for the good of the whole, but I won't.
Living in community does make things easier, I always say.

Posted by: Carrie at October 3, 2007 11:15 AM