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Principles of the Cornucopia
We make thousands of food choices a year. Eating is a therefore matter of profound ethical choices. I am not an advocate for any particular style of diet, as those are incorporated into one’s personal ethical and moral choices. Given that, I won’t force anyone to eat anything they are opposed to eating, whether that’s because of ethics, allergies, or taste preferences. Don’t look to me to tell you what your choices must be. I will give you tips on how to make your choices and how to cleave to them once you make them, but ultimately, the decision is yours.
Eating ethically means looking beyond price and even beyond the contents of one’s plate to the backstory of your food: where did it come from, how did its production effect the environment, the people associated with it, other animals in the area. You don’t have to be fanatical about it, but you should be aware of the sources and the methods of the food that ends on your plate and in your palate.
Local farming, buying locally; that isn’t a cure-all for the world’s ills. It won’t fix the damage caused by too many people needing food. Factory farming, done well and done right, can be as economically environmentally friendly as small farming can be. Fuel efficiency is but one cipher in a complex equation of environment, sustainability, affordability, and ethics. We do not have to deny ourselves the pleasures of exotic foods such as coffee, tea, chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, pepper, and more. We simply need to be aware of how they are harvested, how the people involved in their production are treated, and to make sure we support ethical and humane treatment for people, animals, and the environment. As long as we take care of things, replenish them, and make sure they keep prospering, then, we, too, can keep prospering. We need to ethically operate both the factory farms and the small farms, and support them both.
There are those food ethicists who will argue that supporting the local economy at the expense of supporting impoverished economies (and Bangaldesh is the favorite example for many) is less ethical than buying Fair Trade. This presupposes one lives in a wealthy area, that all portions of the US are more or less equally wealthy. And that’s not true. There are parts of the US that are as deeply impoverished as Bangladesh. Hunger doesn’t care if the country as a whole is better off – it claims health and lives whether it’s in New York City or Timor-Leste. I know it sounds kind of cruel, but I believe we need to make our country as prosperous as we promote ourselves as being. Only then will we be in a position of being able to share the bounty outside our borders.
Yes, the global economy is important. Tell me, though, how much good we can do if we are ourselves internally weak and fragile? Only when we are strong can we lend that strength to others. Each country must look within its borders and strengthen its citizens to the point that there are no large pockets of desperation within it. We can provide more and better help when we operate out of a position of health and prosperity. For too long, America has acted as if we are still the vital and strong nation we once were, and we continue to offer help outside our borders at the expense of those within it. We are gutting our nation to render aid to others, and if we don’t replenish our own resources, we will soon be a beggar-nation, plummeting ourselves from First World to Third World in the blink of a paycheck – homeless, hungry, and unemployed. Morally, ethically, I believe we are obligated to alleviate suffering up to the point where our personal sacrifice balances with the help we give. When we give to the point we can’t pay our own bills and provide for ourselves and our family, then we’ve given too much. This works for individuals, families, and countries. When we deprive ourselves of the things we need to sustain ourselves in order to allow someone else to prosper, we cause harm.
Of course, I believe we need to be deeply and intimately aware of what we need as opposed to what we want. Too many of us can’t tell the difference anymore. Determine what our basic needs are, and build from there, adding in automatically what we share. We fill our cornucopia with what we need, and the rest is shared. By keeping our cornucopia full, we will almost always have something to share.
I know we have some pretty expensive practices in local economies – growing early season tomatoes in greenhouses in Massachusetts costs as much or more in terms of fuel use and intensive supplies as trucking up vine-ripened tomatoes from Florida. Realistically, people living in Boston should expect fresh, vine-ripened local tomatoes from July to possibly October, and use canned or dried tomatoes the rest of the year, if they want to truly impact the local economy and the wider environment. If they are working not just in the local economy, but in the wider US economy, then Bostonians would still be environmentally conscious by buying Florida vine-ripened tomatoes – or by convincing shopping malls to double as greenhouses so the utilities serve multiple purposes.
There’s also the fact that if you buy exclusively at Farmer’s Markets, you take a chance that the small farmer from whom you’re buying, say, eggs, isn’t free-ranging the chickens, but housing them in conditions similar to factories. Unless you truly spend the time getting to know your farmer – inspecting the farm, for example – you can’t be sure you are supporting the environment ethically as well as locally. Cattle raised feed-lot style as opposed to pastured aren’t as healthy nor does it help the environment. You don’t have to necessarily inspect the farm yourself each time you buy eggs or a side of beef, or a few pork loins, but you should inspect at least once or know someone whom you trust who has inspected the farm if you truly want to support your local community and environs.
Both of these ignore the principle of the cornucopia – the greenhouses that are just greenhouses are fulfilling a want, not a need, and so is buying locally without investigating from whom you’re buying and the conditions under which your purchases are being produced.
We can’t all live hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Practical ethics are the cornerstone of the principle of the cornucopia. We work with the conditions we have facing us. That means utilizing factory farms, but improving the conditions uner which they operate. That means seeing to it that herbivores aren’t fed any meat products. That means waiting until the animal matures properly rather than via growth hormones and force-feeding. That means eating seasonally as well as locally, preserving the harvest bounty to eat out of season (or buying it preserved by someone else, preferably locally in all areas of production). That means knowing the provenance of your food and the impact it has on the environment in which it was raised. That means limiting how much you eat.
If that tomato was grown in a greenhouse, out of season, or if that rice was grown in artificially flooded paddies draining aquifers unnecessarily, then buy from further away where the tomato was vine-ripened in a field and the rice grown in a natural wetlands. It makes sense to shun unethical farming practices even if it means buying outside your local area or even your own country. Buy from Fair Trade associations when you buy foreign and exotic foods – coffee, tea, chocolate, spices, rice…
I am very much a locavore in that I believe in supporting ethical farmers and ranchers and business people in my community because it is my community. These are my neighbors, my friends, and if buying from them keeps them employed, fed, housed, and happy; then to me, that is practical ethics, applying the principles of the cornucopia. I have greater influence in my community to effect those farmers and ranchers and business people so they operate in a more humane, ethical, environmentally sound way. That in turn allows us all to be healthier, allows our environs to be more pleasant, and the ripple effect spreads out. We set examples others will emulate because they see how prosperous and happy we are.
And there’s nothing in being a locavore that prevents us from taking the bounty of our cornucopia and spreading it to other countries, to buy Fair Trade cotton, chocolate, wool, coffee, spices, and more. If it doesn’t grow locally, we don’t have to be deprived of enjoying it. We just have to make sure our local environment is healthy before we reach out to other places to help them out.
The principles of the cornucopia as regards food are accessible for everyone to follow: avoid factory farmed animals and out-of-season greenhouse produce; buy local when it makes sense, when buying exotic foods, buy Fair Trade; create and use a permacultured kitchen; and consider growing some of your own food. If you already grow plants, trade a few foliage and ornamentals for some herbs or vegetables or edible flowers. Be practical and realistic in your approach to food. Eat whatever diet best suits you, based on your physical needs and your personal ethics.
Eating ethically means looking beyond price and even beyond the contents of one’s plate to the backstory of your food: where did it come from, how did its production effect the environment, the people associated with it, other animals in the area. You don’t have to be fanatical about it, but you should be aware of the sources and the methods of the food that ends on your plate and in your palate.
Local farming, buying locally; that isn’t a cure-all for the world’s ills. It won’t fix the damage caused by too many people needing food. Factory farming, done well and done right, can be as economically environmentally friendly as small farming can be. Fuel efficiency is but one cipher in a complex equation of environment, sustainability, affordability, and ethics. We do not have to deny ourselves the pleasures of exotic foods such as coffee, tea, chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, pepper, and more. We simply need to be aware of how they are harvested, how the people involved in their production are treated, and to make sure we support ethical and humane treatment for people, animals, and the environment. As long as we take care of things, replenish them, and make sure they keep prospering, then, we, too, can keep prospering. We need to ethically operate both the factory farms and the small farms, and support them both.
There are those food ethicists who will argue that supporting the local economy at the expense of supporting impoverished economies (and Bangaldesh is the favorite example for many) is less ethical than buying Fair Trade. This presupposes one lives in a wealthy area, that all portions of the US are more or less equally wealthy. And that’s not true. There are parts of the US that are as deeply impoverished as Bangladesh. Hunger doesn’t care if the country as a whole is better off – it claims health and lives whether it’s in New York City or Timor-Leste. I know it sounds kind of cruel, but I believe we need to make our country as prosperous as we promote ourselves as being. Only then will we be in a position of being able to share the bounty outside our borders.
Yes, the global economy is important. Tell me, though, how much good we can do if we are ourselves internally weak and fragile? Only when we are strong can we lend that strength to others. Each country must look within its borders and strengthen its citizens to the point that there are no large pockets of desperation within it. We can provide more and better help when we operate out of a position of health and prosperity. For too long, America has acted as if we are still the vital and strong nation we once were, and we continue to offer help outside our borders at the expense of those within it. We are gutting our nation to render aid to others, and if we don’t replenish our own resources, we will soon be a beggar-nation, plummeting ourselves from First World to Third World in the blink of a paycheck – homeless, hungry, and unemployed. Morally, ethically, I believe we are obligated to alleviate suffering up to the point where our personal sacrifice balances with the help we give. When we give to the point we can’t pay our own bills and provide for ourselves and our family, then we’ve given too much. This works for individuals, families, and countries. When we deprive ourselves of the things we need to sustain ourselves in order to allow someone else to prosper, we cause harm.
Of course, I believe we need to be deeply and intimately aware of what we need as opposed to what we want. Too many of us can’t tell the difference anymore. Determine what our basic needs are, and build from there, adding in automatically what we share. We fill our cornucopia with what we need, and the rest is shared. By keeping our cornucopia full, we will almost always have something to share.
I know we have some pretty expensive practices in local economies – growing early season tomatoes in greenhouses in Massachusetts costs as much or more in terms of fuel use and intensive supplies as trucking up vine-ripened tomatoes from Florida. Realistically, people living in Boston should expect fresh, vine-ripened local tomatoes from July to possibly October, and use canned or dried tomatoes the rest of the year, if they want to truly impact the local economy and the wider environment. If they are working not just in the local economy, but in the wider US economy, then Bostonians would still be environmentally conscious by buying Florida vine-ripened tomatoes – or by convincing shopping malls to double as greenhouses so the utilities serve multiple purposes.
There’s also the fact that if you buy exclusively at Farmer’s Markets, you take a chance that the small farmer from whom you’re buying, say, eggs, isn’t free-ranging the chickens, but housing them in conditions similar to factories. Unless you truly spend the time getting to know your farmer – inspecting the farm, for example – you can’t be sure you are supporting the environment ethically as well as locally. Cattle raised feed-lot style as opposed to pastured aren’t as healthy nor does it help the environment. You don’t have to necessarily inspect the farm yourself each time you buy eggs or a side of beef, or a few pork loins, but you should inspect at least once or know someone whom you trust who has inspected the farm if you truly want to support your local community and environs.
Both of these ignore the principle of the cornucopia – the greenhouses that are just greenhouses are fulfilling a want, not a need, and so is buying locally without investigating from whom you’re buying and the conditions under which your purchases are being produced.
We can’t all live hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Practical ethics are the cornerstone of the principle of the cornucopia. We work with the conditions we have facing us. That means utilizing factory farms, but improving the conditions uner which they operate. That means seeing to it that herbivores aren’t fed any meat products. That means waiting until the animal matures properly rather than via growth hormones and force-feeding. That means eating seasonally as well as locally, preserving the harvest bounty to eat out of season (or buying it preserved by someone else, preferably locally in all areas of production). That means knowing the provenance of your food and the impact it has on the environment in which it was raised. That means limiting how much you eat.
If that tomato was grown in a greenhouse, out of season, or if that rice was grown in artificially flooded paddies draining aquifers unnecessarily, then buy from further away where the tomato was vine-ripened in a field and the rice grown in a natural wetlands. It makes sense to shun unethical farming practices even if it means buying outside your local area or even your own country. Buy from Fair Trade associations when you buy foreign and exotic foods – coffee, tea, chocolate, spices, rice…
I am very much a locavore in that I believe in supporting ethical farmers and ranchers and business people in my community because it is my community. These are my neighbors, my friends, and if buying from them keeps them employed, fed, housed, and happy; then to me, that is practical ethics, applying the principles of the cornucopia. I have greater influence in my community to effect those farmers and ranchers and business people so they operate in a more humane, ethical, environmentally sound way. That in turn allows us all to be healthier, allows our environs to be more pleasant, and the ripple effect spreads out. We set examples others will emulate because they see how prosperous and happy we are.
And there’s nothing in being a locavore that prevents us from taking the bounty of our cornucopia and spreading it to other countries, to buy Fair Trade cotton, chocolate, wool, coffee, spices, and more. If it doesn’t grow locally, we don’t have to be deprived of enjoying it. We just have to make sure our local environment is healthy before we reach out to other places to help them out.
The principles of the cornucopia as regards food are accessible for everyone to follow: avoid factory farmed animals and out-of-season greenhouse produce; buy local when it makes sense, when buying exotic foods, buy Fair Trade; create and use a permacultured kitchen; and consider growing some of your own food. If you already grow plants, trade a few foliage and ornamentals for some herbs or vegetables or edible flowers. Be practical and realistic in your approach to food. Eat whatever diet best suits you, based on your physical needs and your personal ethics.
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