Rainbeau Ridge Weblog

Small Changes

Recently, at a luncheon benefiting Sloane Hospital for Women, Dr. Lori Mosca told us that a reduction of just 2% in risk factors for heart disease could save 350,000 lives every year worldwide. Her point was that incremental changes, small steps, start to add up. That’s been my mantra from the start about re-balancing our lives towards greater sustainability, including eating better food. 

Dr. Mosca reported also that small changes in your personal routine - 200 fewer calories a day or 30 minutes of exercise - can result in sure, steadily improved heart health.  

I see this theme everywhere. Changing light bulbs may not solve the energy problem but if we don’t change them, we aren’t taking that first step in the right direction.  

Local eating can begin this way too with just ten percent local sourcing in a school cafeteria or a chain restaurant. This can act as a sign of changing values to families, communities and even to industry. It may be challenging but a first step can lead to both a new personal habit and eventually to building a new food infrastructure.  

In similar ways, one vote alone may not seem to have much impact but many changed votes changed the direction of the nation. Tiny non-profits, born from one person’s frustration or experience, can touch many people and set the ball of change rolling. You have to start somewhere. The business world thinks in broad, global, scalable terms—but a one step, a starting point, has its merits and the potential for far-reaching impact too. Make small changes, as Dr. Mosca suggested. No matter how small, they are important for a better you and a better world.

Eco-consuming

If you haven’t already done so, you should read Alex Williams’ article in this Sunday’s New York Times Style Section—Buying into the Green Movement.  The basic point for the majority of the article is that eco-consumerism is fashionable and not likely to positively impact the planet’s overall welfare.

Likening the trend to eating low fat, he reminds us (me!) of buying Snack Well brand non-fat cookies and consuming the whole box in a single sitting—not a very effective strategy, trading fat for carbs.  But just because we carried the message to excess, the point still remains that if we don’t rush to the port side of the boat, we can still change course for the better. And isn’t awareness at least worth something—we have to start somewhere.

The argument made by the true greenies is that we need fundamental (energy) change and significantly reduced consumption. Amen to that but until then is there really any harm in ‘doing the right thing’?  If we buy clothes made with sustainable inputs, build houses with energy conserving options, eat organic and closer to home, aren’t we still better off—even if the climate change crisis isn’t solved?

And if all this eco-consumption puts the issue front and center, in the public’s consciousness, in mainstream vocabulary, supplied by big box stores who are retooling their rooftops to consume less energy while providing these goods, putting pressure on politicians to, in turn, do the right thing, isn’t “something’s better than nothing” a step in the right direction?

I’m particularly jazzed by the interest and attention that eating local, knowing your farmer and getting closer to your food source are getting.  As a grower and cheese maker, I like not having to convince everyone that these are really good things to do.

Nevertheless, at every opportunity I get, I’m preaching the eat local and seasonal gospel—spreading the word that the taste, health benefits and joy of eating fresh and local and seasonal cannot be matched by imported, off season, high fuel cost strawberries, peaches, corn, asparagus and apples—to name a few of these items.

What would be wrong with slowing down our lives and relearning lost arts of ‘putting by’ so we could enjoy those tomatoes and strawberries mid-winter when we pull a home made jar of sauce or preserves from our shelves?

What’s wrong with causing people to think about where their clothes, coffee, furniture and other consumables come from?  What’s wrong with using a little less gas in our cars, even if the better alternative would be to use mass transit?  What’s wrong with thinking consciously before we purchase, fly or eat?

Clearly we have a long way to go but if we wait for the perfect solution, the purist approach, we’ll have lost many opportunities to improve our lives now—even if we haven’t quite yet saved the planet.

-Lisa