The Poetry, Essays and Personal Journals of Larry L. Dill
Conservation and Consciousness
New hope for a world in crisis
A new essay by Camen Gupta with an introduction by Larry L. Dill
When Camen was 7 years old she moved from Houston with her mother and me to an unimproved 5 acres of forest land near the east Texas town of Nacogdoches which we christened New Hope Farm. We lived in 2 tents: a borrowed wall tent where the three of us slept and an old backpacking tent where Camen did her best to keep her school clothes dry and presentable. I began building our house with trees I cut right there on the farm. Camen’s mother was pregnant with her sister (who grew up to be a vegan chef and now soon to be a mother herself) and it was our intention to create a self-sustaining farmstead just like those we’d read about in the Whole Earth Catalog and The Mother Earth News. We had big dreams. Some of Camen’s most vivid memories of the 3 or so years we lived at New Hope were of trying to keep her baby sister out of harms way, the disgusting task of emptying her own chamber pot, and having to use a stick to fight off our feisty rooster who stalked her every day as she made her way through the woods to meet the school bus. For her, and for all of us, the New Hope experiment was more about survival than sustainability. A lesson, I dare say, Camen has never forgotten.
Eventually, she graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in sociology and made her way to New York City with her sister. Her social consciousness, a kind of eternal flame for the unfulfilled hopes and dreams of her parents, has always remained strong. Since recently moving to London she has begun to think seriously about a program at the London School of Economics which aims to train scholars, activists and diplomats in strategies to make environmental sustainability and social justice a worldwide reality. It is a big dream. In this essay, she lays out the parameters of such a dream with the same seriousness and “unobstructed” vision she used as a child, to live compassionately, frugally and keep bad rooster’s at bay.
--Larry L. Dill
Conservation and Consciousness
By Camen Gupta
My interest in environmentalism has many facets. If sustainability is the ultimate goal, the road there has many twists and turns and interconnections. The role that economic interests play in food politics and resource consumption across the globe is of utmost importance as we seek solutions to the depletion of the world’s natural resources. The consumption practices of industrialized nations (and how those practices impact the rest of the world) must be systemically guided in a more socially and environmentally healthy direction. As corporate interests are pitted against individual rights and the common good, transparency must be demanded. A major obstacle facing society is the general public’s lack of knowledge about how both their local economy and the global economy actually operate.
To achieve long range success, reform cannot be forced on people. To be actively engaged, they have to buy into it and be on board. It is my belief that a more informed public will be more engaged in how their society evolves. With knowledge comes responsibility. Individuals are beginning to accept that one can no longer assume that someone else will come up with all the solutions, just as they start to understand that a commitment to individual and social responsibility is no longer an option but a necessity.
Mitigating the negative impacts we have inflicted on the world’s natural resources requires changing our habits and the way we think about the environment. I had the opportunity to see this concept work first hand recently while living and working in New York City. I read one day about a program called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in which a group of city-dwellers teams up with a local farmer to buy a share of organic produce on a weekly basis. Thinking a scheme like this couldn’t possibly exist in the urban jungle of New York, I wondered how much effort would be involved in starting such a program from the ground up. After conducting some research online I discovered that there were already twenty-two such programs running in the city and that the demand for participation exceeded the capabilities of the existing programs. There were many, many people who wanted fresh, healthy produce from a known local source that they could feel good about bringing home to their families.
To help meet this demand, I soon found myself organizing a new CSA in my neighborhood with a group of six other volunteers. Our membership the first year easily matched the production capabilities of “our farmer” and by the end of the year we had a waiting list two hundred members long. Seeing first hand how an independent, organic and sustainable farm works and how it can affect the lives of the community it feeds has had a profound impact on the individuals who participate in this symbiotic relationship with a farmer. These consumers’ relationship with the earth changed when they got involved in its stewardship in a personal way. Would that all communities had access to local, affordable, and nutritious food sources.
Where a person lives in the world dictates his or her consumer options. Industrialized societies have come to accept that the abundance of inexpensive consumer choices available to us means a healthy economy, i.e., consumerism will increase our happiness. However, most consumers don’t see how the supply end of the food and goods chain operates and why we have so many cheap choices. When consumers are asked to believe in a nicely packaged but incomplete story, complacency takes hold. This is where education and transparency must take the stage. Those on the supply end of the chain typically don’t have the same options that we do. Historically short-sighted economic policies and corporate behavior patterns have caused disparities in the opportunity for self sufficiency through the exploitation of those without power by those with the economic advantage.
So how can we infuse economic policy with a standard of ethics that will enable societies to flourish not with the ultimate goal being the accumulation of wealth via voracious consumption but of a sustainable future that is stable and just? Fair trade policies are a start, but only when viewed through an unobstructed lens. Is the trade really fair for both parties? Very few consumers make the effort to find out the whole story. These are the kinds of transparencies lacking in most trade policies today.
As we focus on problems such as food justice and environmental conservation by developing new technologies and techniques, we must not ignore the lessons to be learned from some local communities throughout the world that have been models of sustainability for hundreds of years. This knowledge must not be drowned out by innovations developed by corporations with motivations that are counter to the common good and which may have negative long term consequences for society and the environment.
As humans are designed to continually adapt to new situations, I have faith that we can take on the environmental challenges we are facing today. Armed with the knowledge and experience that LSE’s MSc programme in Environmental Policy and Regulation will afford me, I hope to take on an active new role in which I can effect a change in the way those with economic power seek to manage the conservation efforts of the world’s resources. Less consumption and more conservation would seem to be the pathway.
How to reconcile this world view with the inevitability of increased globalization is a challenge to be addressed with some urgency. I believe that those holding the economic power must begin to take the ethical lead when it comes to environmental policy. Feigning ignorance of the injustices inherent in many of the world’s social policies is no longer acceptable. Only as we begin to take on a new consciousness and take stock of the consequences of our actions will long term, holistic solutions emerge.
The insight into various societal behavior patterns gleaned from my undergraduate degree in Sociology informs my perception of environmental politics today. Cultivating a creative and enthusiastic approach to environmental policies geared towards long range, equitable solutions to the challenges discussed above is a personal commitment. My objective is to learn from and work with visionaries across the globe to overcome the societal challenges humanity now faces as we strive to save the planet from unalterable destruction. Significant progress towards these goals will intrinsically, benefit humanity in ways that we have not yet even conceived.
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