Aug 30
(Full disclosure: I am currently enrolled in Central Carolina Community College's Sustainable Agriculture program pursuing a Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture, so many of my posts here are going to be lifted from class materials and discussions. I am nothing if not resourceful.)
Today in my Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture class we got into a discussion of the definition of "sustainable agriculture" and some of the words one tends to associate with the practice. My own personal take on the subject is fodder for another post (in the making) but I wanted to touch upon one aspect of the whole sustainable movement in general – attitude. More to a point, the attitude of some die-hard sustainable adherents. One of my classmates, while discussing how the word "green" is bandied about, brought up the example of a green roof being installed on a Ford factory and the subsequent designation of the entire factory as "green". I believe his point was sincere; that you cannot just pay lip-service to sustainable practices, you have to truly believe in them and live them, and installing a green roof doesn't automatically make you earth-friendly. The problem was in the way he delivered his point – he became visibly agitated, his voice started to rise, and his tone became accusatory. Therein lies the problem – many in the sustainable movement take a "my way or the highway" approach to the entire operation. Rather than attempt to learn why people eat and live and build and generally go about their lives the way they do, these sustainability warriors point out everything the "others" are doing wrong and then hammer home the need for change change change!
I truly believe that in order to get people to really want to change their lifestyles, you need to approach them from a cost-benefit standpoint. How is the ultimate cost of change going to benefit them? Will they come out ahead? Will they profit in terms of health, money, happiness? Furthermore, who is anyone else to tell them that what they value in life is wrong? Why is it wrong for someone to want that McDonald's hamburger, or to shop at Wal-Mart because they believe it is cheaper and more convenient? Who are we to judge them?
My point is that in order to make people see how sustainability affects them we need to learn how to relate to them. You cannot tell someone to change without giving them a relatable example. To the girl who loves to go shopping at the mall every weekend – you not only demonstrate how malls are incredibly inefficient consumers of energy but you also provide suitable alternatives to her shopping (local clothes, organic fibers, etc.) WITHOUT (and this is key) passing judgment on the way she chooses to live her life. To the family who eats fast food five nights a week – you show them the impact fast food chains have had on biodiversity, food culture, and global health, while also suggesting low-cost (and delicious) sustainable alternatives for their meals.
We will get nowhere as a movement if we continue to approach the change we need with an ivory-tower attitude. Sustainability is a journey, not an endpoint, and if we want others to come along with us we need to demonstrate how they will benefit from the journey, not demand that they hop on or miss the ride. Haughtiness and an "I-know-best" attitude will get us nowhere; compassion, understanding, tolerance, and patience will lead us to success.