Editor: last update June 21, 1996; usa; america; index
"Spitzer EATS according to those values? What does that mean ?"It means I consider the consequences of my consumption, and attempt to minimize the load I place on the biosphere, whenever I decide what to consume. Purchasing is political, and these decisions are the most frequent political choices we make. For the socially responsible consumer, every day is election day!
I eat low on the food chain, which usually means vegetarian.
I eat "free-range" antibiotic-free eggs instead of the factory kind.
(The "rights" of domestic chickens don't concern me much, nasty brainless things, but the viability of local, family farms does, and "Happy Hens" eggs taste better.) I choose
organic grains and produce,
and whole grains whenever possible. This creates more demand for the kind of agriculture
called for by Green Economics, and reduces the likelihood I'll need a lot of expensive health care one day.
The best book I know on this subject is Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe'. The preface on the Marin County
"food
conspiracies" is the Greenest thing I've seen in a
cookbook yet, and despite a lot of hype and misinformation to the contrary, protein complementing remains scientifically justified. I'm not impressed with Diet for a New America. at all.
I miss swordfish. I still eat clam chowder. Swordfish are at the wrong end of the food chain and their harvest is unsustainable.
I buy in bulk and reuse the containers, and avoid products of multinational corporations, stuff that's shipped really far, or advertised on television. Does anybody disagree that your local microbrew tastes better than Budweiser? Go visit your local brew-pub and tell them the Green Party sent you. But don't drive home drunk, that wouldn't be "Personal and Global Responsibility."
For a while I boycotted
coffee. It's bad for your stomach and its production is incredibly oppressive, with labor
in indentured servitude and subject to torture and "disappearance" for organizing, and the trade funds outrageous military
dictatorships.
Recently I've been using coffee from so-called
"Alternative Trading Organisations" that buy directly from labor-owned cooperatives.
Today I'm wired on Cafe Salvador, from Equal Exchange, 101 Tosca DR,
Stoughton MA 02072. I'll put it up against anything at Starbucks!
I avoid disposable utensils. I've discovered that almost anyplace that serves on paper plates will be delighted to let you bring your own reusable one instead. (And if they're not, it reflects an oppressive management style I'd rather not patronize anyway.)
Like bicycling instead of riding in a car, the positive impact of the gesture is much greater than the materials saved: it expands the "mindshare" of the alternatives to the disposable society, it
demonstrates that the alternatives work.
People remember these little demonstrations.
As active Greens go, I'm relatively uncommitted to this stuff. I've never met so many vegetarians and vegans in one place as at the Green Gatherings I've attended.
I'll leave it to the interested reader to correlate this stuff to the Ten Key Values.
Cameron Spitzer (my real name)
http://www.greens.org
Back to the Green Party USA.