As a shrinking World teeters on the cusp of political and environmental instability, impossible is it now for anyone to consider a planet of boundless growth. Earth will remain a finite resource of no unclaimed terra, nor further exploration into a great unknown. Equally important to this realization is the fact that there’s no far reaching “never-never” land to continue to exploit nor buffer the impact of our exploding waste stream.
Effectively, since empowered to enact freewill on our surrounding, and the correlated adoption of hubris in believing we have control of the systems that contain us – mankind has been a terrible shepherd. It’s becoming evidently clear to those in susceptible areas who’ve been forced to pay attention, and soon for all of us sharing the same interconnected environment, we must do better living within the rules set forth by regenerative systems. If we do not heed the warnings and act proactively, we’ll fall victim to a required recognition that depleting finite resources of planetary boundaries will be expensive if not catastrophic in recovery.
For the most fundamental human needs of food & water – the additional costs of mining sea & soil without replenishing systems needed for self-sustaining nutrient cycling in all trophic levels has created a perpetual and non regenerative waste-stream. With no scope nor expectation of repayment of these taxes, we’ve externalized the “true costs” of cheap food & water that will incrementally lessen the vitality of the whole system the longer we maintain an addiction.
Truth is, by not accounting for the true costs of externalities in the staples we’ve grown accustom – food, water & energy – we’re bending the resilience of the ecological & planetary boundaries keeping the whole system afloat. As a universal truth in rectifying these impacts – consumers must become more immersed in the facts. With greatest potential to be most intimate to us all, the provenance of food is a most logical place to begin. The affect of what actually reaches your dinner table is far greater than just the resulting personal gain or satisfaction. Modern production does not account for waste, environmental impact nor ecological footprint – that’s our actuality, but not accountability! We’ve flattened a circular process into a frozen rope, and our abundance of resources had yet to force concern. But, increasingly costly with health, wellbeing, stability and monetary expense the longer we wait – we’ll soon be forced to embrace change.
part 2: The Staples of life we don’t even treat as a commodity
