There’s a stereotype that we Americans only want low cost and convenience when it comes to transport, energy, and most of all, food. However, if you have seen the documentary, Sustainable, you will know that we are a diverse nation where different people have new or rather, old, ideas towards sustainable living. America is not just a nation of gas guzzling, fast food eating, gun toting people – sure, some of my relatives are like that, but not all. Many of us have become stuck in a cyclical system which traps us in bad food production and bad food purchasing choices, if we have a choice. There are movements out there though to improve food transition and I am a part of this.

Convenience and Consumerist Culture
First, we should not blame many of the consumers who perpetuate these forces. Consumers are often trapped in a system whereby work and family commitments minimize the time they have and the finances they have to make choices. It becomes easier to not cook – to buy ready made meals or to get take outs. Furthermore, the cost of so-called organic or natural foods is too high for most to pay and perhaps, too complex for most to understand if they cared for it. This is not to assume people are incapable, it’s just not a top priority.

America has begun to epitomize the ideas of modern agricultural theory. It’s something which can be seen across all levels of consumerism – that an ever greater level of consumption is good for society and that to service it, people need to specialize and keep costs as low as possible. These are core ideas which ignore those who work to produce the items, to service people, who need to replace items all the time, and most of all, the environment.

As Sustainable points out, this convenience culture in our food has led to massive environmental damage across the United States and beyond. In the agricultural industry, for example, the vast majority of farmers alternate between corn (sweetcorn to you guys) and soy. This leads to greater amounts of weeds, which in turn leads to the use of pesticides and fertilizers which degrade the soil and reduce carbon capture. Fertilizer and pesticide wash off combined with the huge amounts of slurry industrial meat farms produce, have killed off vast tracts of water in the central states down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Taking Control Over Our Purchases
My own journey began with changing how I approached buying things. In all honesty, it started at a coffee shop in Charlottesville, Virginia. My old college friends from Virginia Tech were having an annual meet up and one of them began to moan that her hubby always wore his clothes and boots to the death. Unless they fell of his back or his toes stuck out of holes, he’d keep using them. It was the same with his tools. This made me think of my own husband who was the same, and it made me realize that while I bought a lot of clothes and shoes, so many I often donated bags of them to charity, he bought little. He shopped for good, robust clothing which lasted. It made me realize we don’t have to be so convenience based and so consumerist.

This made me think about food too. Is it really more convenience to the Earth to buy out of season fruits and vegetables? Or to buy mass produced meats full of God only knows chemicals? No, it cannot be. I started to read labels and google the random chemicals which made them up, then I compared say a loaf of bread from the local store to baking my own. Theirs had 60+ chemicals, the homemade one had 5 simple ingredients.

Living a Sustainable Life
Simple changes to our lives and especially to the methods of food producers can have a big impact on the environment. Now I grow my own fruit and vegetables in season. Sure, as we live in a northern state, we use greenhouses to help them grow when it’s still cold outside, but we grow our own vegetables, have bushes for fruit, strawberries, raspberries, and apple trees. I have experimented with growing my own tomatoes knowing when to plant them and how to help them grow naturally.

The Rodale Institute have spent the last 35+ years comparing crop yields between organic crops and modern, pesticide and fertilizer fed crops. There is no difference in yield, except in droughts when the organic crops are 31% better. Organic crops, mixed crops, fight off weeds better than you’d expect, and make a better, more carbon and nutrient rich soil. Small farms are using simple biology to make better food products, but until it’s taken en mass things will not change. America is generally averse to Federal control of these things, so we have to make a market for genuine, low cost, and sustainable produce. Get people demanding good food and the market will follow. Making that change en mass is the challenge right now. I’d love to know if it’s the same in the UK, so please leave a comment and check out Sustainable on Netflix, it’s awesome.

Jackie Edwards

Read Jackie’s brilliantly informative guide to growing your own tomatoes…