This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 9:25am and is filed under Local, Agriculture, Farming, Environment, Food Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I love Wired magazine — love, love, love it — because it’s forward thinking, filled with new ideas, geeky-hip (like I hope I am) and, most of all, is not afraid to break taboos to get us looking at things in new, arguably more rational ways.
Case in point is this month’s cover story, “Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green,” which tells us that “winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism’s sacred cows.” The article then goes on to suggest 10 “Green Heresies” we may all need to embrace if we are committed to slowing down/reversing the carbon emissions choking our planet.
Two of those heresies directly relate to our interests here at Down to Earth:
Heresy No. 3: Organics Are Not the Answer. Wired explains how conventional agriculture can be easier on the Planet.
Heresy No. 6: Accept Genetic Engineering. Feeding the more than six billion people exacts a heavy environmental toll. The only way to make it easier on Mother Earth is to use science to create super-efficient foodstuffs, which could put a real dent in global emissions.
After years of helping run an organic restaurant, no one was more surprised than I was to find out that the organic label was a marketing designation not supported by science. The locovores (like Sara) have it right when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:36am
Great link, Suzanne! This story points out what seems to be a mantra here that it’s not quite as easy as a blanket statement, label or philosophy.
I find myself thinking more and more about what “the answer” is. It’s not simple. Or maybe it is… Simplifying one’s life; less purchasing, less consumption, less travel, less ready-eat/wear/go and less-than-perfect (i.e. used) may make the most difference overall.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:38pm
And what about all the trash we all generate every day? Ye Gods! I keep thinking of the landfill space that I am personally responsible for creating.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:12pm
We’ve lived in our house for eight years and we’ve done literally nothing due to my husbands adamant insistance that he’s going to do everything himself, but never does because he doesn’t have the time. So, all the bathrooms need renovating and our living room isn’t furnished. But, everything works, and we are comfortable. As for the empty living room, well, we already have two other furnished common spaces (sun room and family room). I bounce between wanting to start tearing walls down and putting “my mark” on the house still decorated with wall paper someone else chose, and being lazy, not doing anything and saving our money for the time being. My parents can’t stand it and are constantly offering to buy us furniture. Next time, I’m going to tell them we keep our living room empty due to our deep commitment to the environment.