Pam wrote an interesting piece on the intersection of poverty and sustainability (Poor Folks Don't Care About the Earth). The question that particularly struck me was, "Can we help people struggling to survive, live sustainably?" The tension, of course, is struggling between helping those in the here and now vs. protecting the world for those to come. Heifer International comes to mind as an organization trying to help those in poverty through a program that is sustainable. I also thought of several organizations trying to provide sustainable cook stoves or sustainable means of making clean water available (such as Trees, Water & People).
But I suppose this is also a local question. How can I help those who are in need in my community live more sustainably? Backyard gardening pops immediately to mind. I've been involved in the Garden Club at our local elementary school and was excited when I heard that the local middle school (which has a higher percentage of low income families than our elementary school) was going to start one as well. Unfortunately the principal replied to my inquiries by telling me that the garden is still at least a year down the road.
Do you have thoughts regarding the intersection of poverty and sustainability? Conflicts? Solutions? General ramblings?
The picture shows a bit of our harvest back in 2006 from the school garden. I don't think I've taken many pictures of the harvest since then, mostly because I wasn't sure if they were worth sharing. But I kinda wish I'd taken harvest pictures every year so we could compare our haul.
ReplyDeleteonly general ramblings... but yes, this is an issue that does bother me - we are encouraged to buy more local produce in the name of protecting the environment, to think of food miles, but I am concerned about what will happen to the struggling economy of Kenya for example if I stop buying their green beans.
ReplyDeleteok, this is not so much to do with the question of how to help poor people live more sustainably, I was responding to where you said: "The tension, of course, is struggling between helping those in the here and now vs. protecting the world for those to come."
i've thought of that too. on the one hand, eating food from that far away is a waste of resources, on the other hand, it's providing work to people.
ReplyDeletethen i wonder how much the people were paid for picking that food.
sometimes i feel like the issues are so far flung, and yet still so connected to me, that there's no way i can follow the string all the way back far enough to really have a good sense of the consequences of my decisions.
yes, in some cases there are so many different factors that it seems impossible to work out what's the best thing to do. some things are more straightforward - or at least I naively think they are - like recycling paper for example, it's very easy for me to do and I can't think of any reason why I shouldn't. but these questions of shopping - I just don't know.
ReplyDelete