Categories: Messages and statements; Commerce and business
Word count/read time: 478 words; 2 minutes
Marketing departments use every imaginable
gimmick to make their products sound healthy or good. For food, some terms
have a legal definition like organic; others are essentially meaningless
and skirt the boundaries of decency.
Read the label because it may be nothing like it should be.
They might advertise "No artificial colors!" yet fake fats, artificial flavors,
preservatives, synthetic sweeteners, chemicals, and the gamut of
questionably edible food additives abound.
"Fat free" is a misnomer
since something can derive 100% of its calories from fat
yet be called fat free. Those fats can be 100% trans fats and yet it can be called trans fat free.
That's what happens when lobbyists and special interest groups write laws.
According to the United Nations, 'sustainable' means it does not compromise the ability of
future generations to meet their needs. Simply, will your kids be able to do the same
thing you're doing, ad infinitum?
Sustainably harvested, however, has been put through
the marketing machine. It is highly suspect at best. Since nature abhors a monoculture
in properly balanced habitats, the very act implies the crop was
artificially created or transplanted.
It's a green-washing, feel-good term for first-world countries.
Some obscure term won't change what we've done and it will have little influence on
what will continue to happen. We don't need sustainable, we need to consume less!
People are under the mistaken notion that just because something is less harmful, by
no means does it deserve to be called sustainable. Consumption is consumption.
As is typical of monoculture plantations, any existing plant life was removed/disposed of
and the animals forced out or exterminated. Biodiversity will not recover in many of
these areas nor will connectivity so what we don't kill by outright razing will die off
due to genetic isolation.
Palm oil is the worst. These plantations have all but supplanted
vital and irreplaceable habitats to satisfy big agriculture and big food.
Were we not killing orangutans or clearcutting rainforests quickly enough already?
This isn't sustainable. We've have succeeded in extracting and concentrating
natural resources in ways that nature never intended.
Plus, there are few sustainable harvesting options for mass quantities of anything,
plants and animals alike.
Multi-billion dollar industries don't prioritize
respecting people and the planet. Their lobbyists ensure favorable legislation
and the tax burden often gets shifted to the masses.
Money and power have always trumped sustainable or environmental
anything. We know the situation must change though we still act as if nothing's wrong.
What about the products you consume? Does it matter how or where the raw materials
were acquired? Fair trade? Eco-conscious? Locally grown or manufactured?
I guess it all depends what the definition of "is" is....
My handmade precious metal jewelry and artwork are (sustainably) harvested from
recycled, repurposed, and reclaimed items, i.e.
existing sources. They are heirloom quality and come without disclaimers or qualifiers.
Posted by M: November 14, 2019
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