1) What have you learned about yourself through the daily challenges in the "waste and "community" categories?
The choice I made for the waste category was to avoid plastic bottles. I already use a re-usable water bottle, but I also am a serial 'fun' drink consumer, who drinks a lot of coffee, and matcha, and things like vitamin water. So I decided to try and cut out on buying drinks, and make coffee at home for the whole week, and buy myself some water flavoring packets (though these also raise the problem of coming in disposable packaging) so I could still have my ritual of making a fun drink. I find myself really missing going out to get a coffee. I've learned that for me, the habit is less about the drink itself and more about getting myself a treat. It's taught me that I need to come up with activities that count as 'treating myself' that are more environmentally friendly and less based in consumerism. Regarding the community category, I chose the one-time action of connecting with a local organization. I chose the Clean Air Council, as they had briefly talked to the rowing team here at Bucknell, so I was vaguely familiar with them. Browsing through their website, and signing several petitions reaffirmed how important small act of activism, particularly in public policy, are to me. The eco-challenge always makes me feel a little good about myself, but the simply act of signing a petition was even more gratifying, to me. It's very satisfying, very comforting almost--it gives me a sense of control, that even in times of political turmoil, at least I am doing my part for causes I believe in.
2) What have you learned about your relationship with the environment through the daily challenges across all the categories?
I've learned that my relationship to the environment is deeply tied to the current overall political climate. Jimmy Carter's reaction and leadership during the 1973 energy crises is a strong example of this. If I had lived during this time period, I would likely have different opinions/place perhaps more value into the environmental benefits of saving energy. I consider myself relatively environmentally friendly, but electricity was the only category where I found many of the actions weren’t things I had considered doing before. This article showed me the importance of what political figures say and do in shaping what the public’s conscience looks like regarding environmental concerns.
The readings in week four taught me that politicians don’t only mediate our relationship with the environment through what they say, but even through organizations like the FDA. Here, I think about the standards for organic food that are discussed in the Pollan reading. By defining what is and what isn’t organic, they encourage a food system which is not only lacking in health benefits for us, but not environmentally sustainable. My one time task for this week was to learn about food apartheid, and I read
this article from the National Resources Defense Council, which discusses that a large reason we experience ‘food deserts’ is due to the policies which make unnutrious, highly processed food more affordable.
This week, I learned that our relationship with the environment is also highly tied to consumerist culture. My challenge was something I thought would be very simply–cut out plastic water bottles. It instead is one of the more difficult challenges I’ve had, because it stops me from buying things. The reading by Strasser, “Never Gonna Give You Up,” really shed light on how pervasive plastic is–largely because it is all wrapped up in things we buy. It’s no coincidence that our use of plastic, particularly of single-use plastics, has skyrocketed as individual spending increases. The ease of plastic manufacturing makes it incredibly pervasive, (which speaks to Strassers point about the use and amount of plastic in the home) and due to that it is used heavily in just about everything we buy, and so as we become a more consumerist nation, the more plastic we use, the less environmentally friendly we become.
3) How are the historical and cultural origins of organic food and/or disposability related to the 'daily' and 'one-time' challenges available in the "food," "health," "waste," and "community" categories?
Regarding waste, I think part of what Strasser was getting at is that plastic was once something that was almost revered–it made manufacturing so much easier, that it was nearly a point of pride. It was something that we saw as helpful, that made our daily lives easier. And so we put it everywhere, in everything. That cultural foundation is why it is so difficult now to cut out plastic, because it has become such an everyday, ingrained part of our lives. Particularly, the use of plastic in the home–all of your bath and shower care products are likely made out of plastic, for example. This is likely why most of the challenges in the waste category, at first read seem like smaller tasks focusing on reducing, compared to some of the more involved tasks in other categories(like many of the health challenges, for example, expects you to take significant time out of your day. There is an almost sort of recognition that waste is incredibly difficult to reduce in today’s economy and society.
The cultural origins of organic food, in the 70’s, as discussed by McGrath were largely focused around the idea that organic food was healthier. Today, this idea has created a base of consumers who seek out organic food not because it’s environmentally friendly, but because it’s good for them, which is where the Pollan article focuses. Thus, large companies have motivation to commodify and industrialize organic food, because they know that they have a customer base who will bring in large profit. In this way, the government then has a powerful external voice encouraging them to keep the standards for what is ‘organic’ low, because the lower that standard is, the more money corporations can make off it. This helps to explain why many of the challenges in the ‘food’ category are focused on getting people involved at the local level–whether that be through a co-op, or farmer’s market, or even directly from farmers themselves.
