PEDANTIALAND: July 2010

film

We Americans, we subsidize farming, large mechanized swaths of cotton, amber waves of grain. For decades, this business model has supported a standard of life that in comparison to other countries is remarkable. However, this particular commodity paradigm promotes imbalances in the market. Recently we have been gaining awareness how foodstuff practices for corn and wheat that damage our collective health through additives, obesity, the hidden built in carbon "tax" of transport. We send cotton overseas to India or China where mills and manufacturers make products as fast and cheap as possible, mostly through undercutting their work force. Diminishing product quality back to ourselves below cost, thus undermining localized work force and realizing dwindling returns on salaries and buying power. This is not to mention how much waste the garment industry necessarily produces.

More often than not, we are producing much more basic commodity than we need or the market can bear. Excess raw corn, wheat, and cotton, unable to fetch a price at auction or overflowing from federal reserves, gets dumped on philanthropy markets. Struggling third world countries receive shipments of these commodities, consequently bypassing local marketplaces which do not thrive on government subsidies and thus cannot compete with"free". Used garments are often shipped in masses to these same countries, supplanting local production and consumption of clothing. There's so many leftovers, that these "gifts" are being turned away, sometimes in lieu of more lucrative trash. With the decline of the farming industries, smaller nations are unable to support the livelihoods of their own people. The price of free then, is a cycle of pollution, starvation, dependency, war and ultimately, a bigger market for subsidized products.

This paradigm is nothing most of us don't know. And there's a lot out there on the ethics of the marketplace; human rights, working conditions, poverty, conservation. All valid issues that we usually see as a function of consumer choice beyond these basic commodities, thus the eco-contingencies, the green companies, the charity safaris, and the locavore movement. Although buying smarter, building better, not only food or clothing, but shelter, transportation, and what have you, can never be bad especially in this economy, as far as I can tell, our efforts are focused on remedies with the overall picture of marketplace reality remaining intact. Under the current economic infrastructure and cultural norms, our less palatable option, is to live nothing or buy nothing. Literally, be nothing.

Am I hypocrite? Yes. As an aspiring designer or architect, roadster, foodster, nay, human being, I've had to struggle with the environmental ethics on multiple levels, just as everyone else does. But, a New York Times article reminded me today, that while this particular bottom-up approach may not solve our over-population problems or the very basic ramifications of Capitalism, we can make more drastic sacrifices as a society than switching from Wonderbread to organic whole wheat, or putting down cash for clunkers.

"Corn's Impact on America's Diet, Health and Politics" Mike Pesca, NPR, Nov. 27, 2003
"Is Walmart Good for America?" Frontline, PBS, Nov. 2004
"Farm Living" Andre Martin, New York Times, Feb. 7 2009
Geography 4: World Peoples and Cultural Environments, UC Berkeley
"No Waste Allowed" Sandra Ericson, Threads 149, June/July 2010 - Not mentioned on their website for some reason, but it should be.
Stuff that patchwork quilters already know, but for garments: Timo Rissanen blog, Mark Liu blurb
Upcycling - "New Dress a Day" blog