Friend Amy sends a video from the NYT about about how American companies associated with food production are, in essence, getting paid to ruin the planet.
Amy finds this infuriating. How could she not? How could anyone not?
And yet we know all too well that nothing about “this is shameful” leads to “let’s do something about the problem.” As many Americans refused to mask up and think guns make them safe, we can hardly expect self-interest or information to move people to be aghast or take action.
And it is not as though everyone who sees this video or who is infuriated will, say, eat differently (if that would solve some of the problem.) Lots of people are against cruelty to animals and global warming but only up to the point that might require them to give up a steak. As the video points out, those working against climate change seem to skip over big agriculture.
So here are three thumbnails of what we might do:
Create and scale networks of “good for earth” food. Link positive earth restaurants, co-op’s, and carbon neutral food producers such that supporting those networks as patrons is easier and their scale gives them more collective power than any have alone. i.e. The Amazon of Good (for earth) Food.
Empower a single issue—dare I say green—political party. Not a “liberal” party. One issue: Reduce heat on the planet. Doesn’t matter if you are a also anti-choice and a big time racist. If you want to save the planet, join us. Want to support a women’s right to choose and defund the police? Great. But we don’t talk about that here. One issue determines our talking points, policies and candidates. Maybe, maybe such a party would be able to catalyze action or force the dominant parties to pay attention to how far past emergency we already are.
And because shame does not work to move people but telling them they have been duped does, a Lincoln Project like campaign expose these companies not as “bad for the planet” but as fat-catish and abusing a system meant to be for families and small farmers. You know, “rigged.”
Presumably people are working on something like the three above. I hope they are more able to make things happen than I am or, for that matter, Corey Booker is.
With a magic wand charged to 90% it would be simple. Make an app that tells you, on a scale between 1-100, how earth friendly every meal or item in the supermarket is. Then subsidize the freindlier items so they are cheaper such that more people buy them and those networks grow. Exactly what we do know only in reverse.
But don’t count on seeing that anytime soon.