A Crisis of Character
“I cannot think of any American whom I know or have heard of , who is not contributing in some way to destruction. The reason is simple: to live undestructively in an economy that is overwhelmingly destructive would require of any one of us, or any small group of us, a great deal more work that we have yet been able to do.” -Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977

In Wendell Berry’s 1977 book, he strove to put a spotlight on the complacency of the consumer and the corporation, and their failure to align purported values with actions and investments. He called for awareness and change on the individual level— for us to become responsible consumers.
In 2018, this quote rings just as true. Our complacency has grown with convenience. I can order a car service or get groceries from my phone. I can have someone in California pick out clothes for me based on an online profile and send me options to try on. I can have a whole meal kit delivered so I won’t have to think about what to cook for dinner. Those who can afford to do so have outsourced all of our decision making to what Berry calls “experts” in order to buy what is most precious to us—time.
This new explosion of convenience living has served to separate us even further from our neighbor, our grocer, our butcher, and our farmer. Although the recent organic food movement has raised consciousness about sourcing healthy, ethically-raised food and avoiding food waste, it does not yet connect us to the community farmer. We can now (controversially) feel good about buying “ugly” produce online, but does this support the small farmer? My suspicion is that simply provides an additional revenue stream to large (conventional or organic) agro-business.
Now to step off soapbox I’ve been sharing with good ol’Wendell… we all make ethical concessions in the face of convenience. Sometimes we forget our grocery bags and opt for “plastic.” Sometimes we just can’t justify the expense of those organic blueberries and opt for conventional. Sometimes we want to stuff a chemical preservative-laden, cheap-ass, convenience-store ice cream sandwich down our gullet just for the nostalgia factor.
The key for me is I am not doing so blindly. I pledge to continue to learn more about food systems and agriculture practices, and try not to act out of convenience.
Here are some things I have been intentional about this summer:
- Eating local and organic whenever possible
- Eating less meat. When eating meat, to eat meat from local small farms
- Composting! Everything!
- Recycling
- Supporting local farms!
- Growing my much of own food, organically
- Learning about farming and food practices
- Learning about food access and equity
Here are some things I haven’t done yet, but want to be doing in the near future:
- Shift all my retirement investments to socially responsible funds
- Can and freeze local produce for the off-season
- Use low-till practices whenever possible
- Use cover crop rotation methods
- Have an agriculture-related enterprise to replace some or all of my income-stream
- Keep semi-free-range chickens and ducks
- Be mindful! Do yoga!
- Educate others about farming, food, and food-justice issues
Here are the things that I am doing now, but are going to be hard/inconvenient/expensive when I am back in Chicago:
- Eating local and organic whenever possible
- Eating less meat. When eating meat, to eat meat from local small farms
- Composting! Everything!
- Supporting local farms!
- Growing my much of own food, organically
I am still going to try to keep up these practices to the best of my financial and personal ability, no matter where I am, but I recognize there is “a great deal more work” to be done.