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Sustainably Harvested

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Categories: Messages and statements; Commerce and business

Word count/read time: 471 words; 2 minutes

Marketing departments use every imaginable gimmick to make their products sound healthy or good (greenwashing). 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?

It's a feel-good term for first-world countries. An obscure term won't change what's transpired and it will have little influence on what will continue happening. We don't need sustainable, we need to consume less! People are under the mistaken notion that just because something is less harmful it deserves special recognition or a nifty new word. Consumption is consumption.

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.

As is typical of monoculture plantations, any existing plant life was removed/disposed of and the animals forced out or exterminated. Neither biodiversity not connectivity will recover in many of these areas. 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 with the tax burden 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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