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The Sierra Club Launches Its...
“TRUE COST OF FOOD” CAMPAIGN
The United States, with less than 5% of the world’s population,
consumes over 25% of its resources. If all 6.4 billion people caught up
with our lifestyle, we’d need four more Earths!
The Sierra Club Sustainable Consumption Committee has launched a new,
national grass-roots campaign to educate on sustainable food, wood
production, energy use, water consumption, and related issues.
The first focus is on the one major aspect of American consumption
that’s the easiest to change: our dietary lifestyle. American food
production has a huge impact on the environment:
- Agriculture is the largest source of water pollution in the U.S.
- Industrialized farming poisons the soil, encourages pests, and
destroys biodiversity.
- Seventy-five percent of the land in the continental United States is
devoted to agriculture or grazing, and much of the cropland produces
grain for cows, not people.
The Club expends enormous resources fighting the symptoms of
unsustainable agriculture, from water pollution and toxins in the food
chain to loss of habitat and species. We do this without challenging the
root cause of the above: American food consumption patterns. Our diet
completely ignores the true cost of food.
We’re responding with the “True Cost of Food” campaign to make the Club
a leader in sustainable eating:
- Plant based.
- Organically produced food.
- Locally grown food when practical.
The Sierra Club will:
- Build a nationwide network of activists who target local markets to
provide more food that is organically grown, locally produced, and
reasonably priced. These goals are practical and doable. There already
exists a pent-up public demand for organic. Rapidly growing numbers of
local farmers want to give up their dependence on poisons. And the
Sierra Club already has the ideal structure and experience to galvanize
this movement.
- Show environmentally minded persons how they can immediately make a
big difference in their everyday lives. That’s empowerment. And
empowered people are already halfway to becoming activists. Consider the
value of this one fact on someone who is trying to conserve water: It
takes 2500 gallons of water to produce only one pound of beef. This
equals a five-minute shower every day for six months!
- Popularize the concept “Sustainable Tuesday.” On Tuesdays (or some
other day), we can involve friends/family in fun ways to live more
lightly on our Planet, such as:
• Turning the thermostat up or down, depending on the season.
• Having outings for prearranged sustainable meals at local restaurants.
• Having a sustainable potluck dinner with family/friends.
• Walking or using alternate transportation.
• Hiking in the park instead of shopping.
Few things strengthen the Club’s traditional work on forest, habitat,
clean air, etc. than addressing one root cause of these problems, the
wasteful and excessive consumption in our society.
We’d love to have you get involved with the Sustainable Consumption
Committee at your level of comfort. Please contact our volunteer
coordinator, Terry Jensen,
sierra@dfwnetmall.com or metro 972 988-8687, ext 3104. |
