It is amazing how people learn something into an action or even a habit. This process fascinates me and remains something of a mystery.
I’ve been involved in educating people about community development, doing community service projects, environmental education, and gardening for years. It feels good to write “years,” even though I don’t know what impact all this “teaching” has had on all the people who have sat with me on chairs, carpets, and fields and explored information and how it can be transferred into positive action.
I believe that anything said or done can plant a seed – for good or bad. I hope that I have scattered some good seeds and that there are lots of strong and tall trees because of me.
Recently I began Bob Doppelt’s book, The Power of Sustainable Thinking. It feels like a self-help book for the sustainability-minded, but so far it is holding my interest. Perhaps because I am in need of some green uplift?
Actually, I am in need of general uplift some days - mostly on the gray, cold, February days which are finally in the past. So, as I strive to recharge my eco-batteries by talking gardens and greening, I really should be more careful about what I read.
The Doppelt book is a good choice, but a Feb.2 5 New York Times article was not. The piece, written by Willian Neuman, was about food contamination and the bribes that were taken by members of the food industry. The men described skimmed money off the top of deliberately overpriced ingredients like tomato paste in return for turning a blind eye to contaminants like excessive mold.
The article also describes how one executive needed money to pay his taxes. He called a tomato broker and was soon paid off for accepting contaminated products. Neuman muses, “the case has raised serious questions about how well food manufacturers safeguard the quality of their ingredients.” Mr. Neuman, it raises a more serious question than that: how do people justify threatening the health of thousands, perhaps millions, of consumers in return for easier personal cash flow?
This case raises serious issues to me about the health of our society. We let people like the bribe-taker take control over our food and our health. We allow people to look out for themselves first and hope that they share some of their ill gotten gains with their favorite charity of choice.
What kind of world do we have when this is an operating system that has been going on for over a decade without anyone taking notice or being morally offended enough to make it stop? What kind of society are we? More importantly, what kind do we want to be?
One of my favorite terms learned this year is “backcasting”. I used to talk with folks about this in terms of “end in mind”. What is the end vision? What can we do today to get there? It is easy for everyone to think that their one small act won’t make a difference, but it does.
Neuman quotes U.S. attorney Benjamin Wagner in response to the bribes-for-bad-food case as saying, “If you have a couple of people who are willing to bend the rules and they set that tone from the top, that can spread very quickly in that company and in that niche industry, and that’s what happened here.” If negative actions by one person can set the tone and change the mode of operations for an industry, why couldn’t a positive action do the same? As I ponder the possibility of this, here’s a bit more from Bob Doppelt.
“Human activities result from choices they make about what is really important. Our beliefs and assumptions, and the thought patterns they engender, lead us to make certain decisions.”
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