Jessica

Vozel

Read Jessica's bio and previous columns here

March 30, 2009

Green is Great, But Not for Guilt

When I was in college five or six years ago, I lamented the lack of enthusiasm for green living. I tried to institute a recycling program in my dorm, and was met with blank stares and mumblings about “the cost.” I had to order organic, animal-friendly beauty supplies and cleaning products online because no nearby stores carried them. I shopped for bruised produce in the teeny-tiny organics section of our local Giant Eagle, when I could afford it.

I never would have imagined that celebrities and politicians would start driving hybrids and tiling their roofs with solar panels, that we would elect a president who sees the potential for economic growth in green jobs and takes climate change seriously, that agriculturally responsible food – like the locavore, organic and “slow food” movements – would become trendy rather than laughable. Now, when I walk down the street, I trip over recycling bins and find the same eco-friendly products I used to order online at the local CVS pharmacy.

Seems like a dream right? Well, sort of. While all of these changes are good, I didn’t anticipate that “green” would become an advertising buzzword and a marketing strategy – that Clorox would create an “all-natural” line of cleaning products that is basically the same as the “non-natural” products, but with a higher price tag. The capitalist economy has embraced the green philosophy, but only because they’ve discovered there’s profit to be had from dyeing their product green and slapping on labels with pictures of fresh flowers and wheat fields blowing in the wind. Green has become a commodity, and shopping at Whole Foods (also colloquially known as “Whole Paycheck”) has become a marker of status and wealth.

Even worse, those who can’t afford organic rice and “all-natural” dish soap are told that they just don’t care about the environment or their bodies enough. The debate over food choices is perhaps the most volatile, because of the attendant stigma in America over the “obesity epidemic” and the rampant belief that if one is fat, then one must be eating nothing but ecologically irresponsible, overly processed crap.

On 60 Minutes last week, Alice Waters, mother of the “slow food movement” – which basically revolves around the idea of knowing where your food comes from – speaks to the idea that organic food is expensive: “We make decisions everyday about what we’re going to eat . . . And some people want to buy Nike shoes – two pairs, and other people want to eat Bronx grapes and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I want to do.” Excuse me?

I’m all for the foundation of Waters’ philosophy – that agribusiness is bad for the health of our planet, that people should take time to enjoy the pleasures of food and that the community benefits when people buy local – but I can’t get on board with the guilt she tacks onto her message. What of people who can’t afford Nikes or organic grapes? Or people who live in Phoenix? Or people who live in urban ghettos? Granted, the slow food movement aims to make healthy, environmentally friendly produce available for everyone, but Waters fails to recognize that right now, in this economic climate, it’s just not feasible that everyone consume the most eco-friendly food they can find. Many people are just trying to keep their houses.

Waters owns and operates a $75-$100 a plate restaurant in Berkeley, California and resides in a mansion in one of the most fertile agricultural zones in America. Of course she has unfettered access to local, organic and exorbitantly expensive produce. But to make those who deign to buy comfortable shoes feel guilty for it is sadly misguided and misrepresents what local, community-sustained agriculture sets out to do.

Convincing people to live in an ecologically responsible way – which I still believe is infinitely valuable in these times – is difficult enough. Making it an issue of class and status, and guilting people into participating by dissecting how they spend their money, will never be effective. Even I buy less organic produce than I used to (partly because I can’t afford it, and partly because I’m realizing that “organic” doesn’t take profits from the agri-business behemoths who, in many cases, mass-produce the organic stuff, too).  

I’m all for the positive steps our country has taken to improve our fractured relationship with the natural world, but ideally our next step will be to make living green a feasible goal for many rather than a pleasure for the few who can afford it.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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