“Wasting” Our Life Away $

  

The amount of waste generated by people is growing each day, and the likelihood is that it won’t stop. As population continues to grow exponentially, the newest mindset which is contributing to human demise is the high demand for services and products instantly delivered. While giant corporations like Walmart, Amazon, McDonald's, and many others, keep on serving our “needs,” the intrinsic connection amongst people and the land is being completely extinguished.

Such unnecessary consumerism and misuse of our planet’s resources is not only causing us to lose our intrinsic connection with our land, but also our connection to each other as a community. The “corner store” is no longer there and “fresh food” is no longer fresh. We have been conditioned to live and accept food and products the way it is provided to most of us: buying it somewhere, fast and as cheap as possible. And, to make things worse, many people buy things they don’t even need or end up using!

The solution is for us to reconnect with Earth by choosing more locally grown seasonal produce and utilizing sustainable plant-based materials that support the environment. For example, Dan Barber, in his book The Third Plate, “proposes that Farm-to-table should include different foods and different portions that support the land” which can be achieved by “rotating the most desirable and valuable foods, like tomatoes, with more humble offerings like buckwheat or barley or mustard greens." Such knowledge can help to avoid depleting the nutrients of the soil and allow for more sustainable farming. But it also depends on human choice/demand.

Will Allen was fighting to ease this problem when he tried to create a sustainable urban farm: “We’re not just growing food, we’re growing community.” And, despite that is a hard task to be a sustainable farmer and grow without chemicals, there are other ways to work with the soil, such as crop rotation and composting.

The Video the Story of Stuff talks about the human need of unnecessary stuff, which passes through a system called Materials Economy, and the impact it causes in the environment and to people. Annie Leonard attempts to bring awareness of the broken process which contributed to condition our generation into a consumerist culture. The video bellow depicts the consumerism in America:

We have to re-connect to our planet and choose more sustainable ways to live otherwise it will be too late for us and future generations. Nowadays there is enough knowledge and technology available to reconnect with Earth, how will you use it?

My goal inspired by the story of stuff is to use lots of visuals and few words.

 References:

Behind the Rise and Fall of Growing Power. (2018, March 18). Retrieved from https://civileats.com/2018/03/13/behind-the-rise-and-fall-of-growing-power/

Leonard, A. (2017, May 24). The Story of Stuff. Retrieved from https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/

Staff, N. P. R. (2014, May 20). 'Third Plate' Reimagines Farm-To-Table Eating To Nourish The Land. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/20/313988991/third-plate-encourages-a-more-inclusive-eating-pattern?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140520

The Atlantic. (2019, February 22). America's Dopamine-Fueled Shopping Addiction. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qWHJ29-s4U