Dan France's heifers roam freely instead of in a confined animal feeding operation
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention. ~Barbara Walters
What is the price of misery? We live in a consumerist society where we buy stuff all the time. How much more would you pay to buy something that was made without causing any harm to a person, an animal, or the environment? Or maybe the flip question is more relevant since we all know what it takes to make things the right way - in a high-quality fashion without screwing someone in terms of salary, treating animals inhumanely, or the environment unsustainably. How much harm are you willing to inflict to be able to buy something for less?
We all know that blood diamonds are bad. But they can be sooo sparkly, and they are cheaper than buying conflict-free diamonds. Is the shine worth human misery?
What about iPhones? The rare earths that go into the phone come from unregulated Chinese companies, and poor farm families have their lives ruined from the mining. Without the suffering of those communities, iPhone prices would be astronomical. Is it a worthy tradeoff? What if you promise to use your iPhone for years instead of upgrading in two?
This thinking extends to the stuff we buy every day - food. Americans have become used to buying cheap food produced by wide-scale, industrial farming. If we stopped to think about it, we would want clean, high quality, nutritious food. It would be produced in a way that didn't build-up chemicals in our soil and water to harm the environment, didn't create unhealthy and doped up animals for food, and didn't cause cancer and other diseases in the people that work with crops and pesticides/herbicides or force people to work for less than a living wage. Industrial farming has become so prevalent that Americans pay less for their bad-karma food than any other country. As a percent of income, Americans spent 5.7% on food in 2006. Europeans, who have low tolerance for low-quality food, spent between 10.4% and 14.7%.
Let's spend mindfully against misery and change the world. Vote with your wallet for quality and doing things the right way. There's a New Year's resolution for those that are still looking.
What to do - Support Good
- Research the things you buy. Why are there different price levels? How is it produced?
- Identify your values and the things you want to support. If you can't think of anything, try buying the misery-free version. Don't buy things that don't hurt people, animals or the environment, and support a positive lifestyle instead.
- Buy the best quality you can. Get the most nutritional bang for your food dollar, and spend money on things that last. It's a waste of time and money when you have to replace items. Do you really want to spend your life shopping?
Want to learn more?
- How much different countries spend on food in 2006 (USDA)
- What is industrial food/farming (Mindful Eats)
- Cornucopia Institute, consumer watchdog for organics (Mindful Eats)
- You are worth high quality food (Mindful Eats)
- Mindful Flowers (Mindful Eats)
What I ate: poached nyegg, macadamia nuts, pear, hot and sour soup, white rice, sauteed fish, tofu, squash, pan fried vegetables and noodles, 4 peanuts, blue cheese crackers, dried squid, brown rice, tofu, mushrooms, sauteed fish, 42 oz. water
Exercise: Ran 4 miles
