At the end of September, several members of the student organization Food Truth attended a lecture by Michael Braungart, one of the co-authors of the revolutionary book, Cradle to Cradle. The lecture was part of the Center for Austrian Studie’s conference, “Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture, and Bioresources.” Braungart’s lecture was entitled “Cradle to Cradle and a Sustainable Agriculture.” Is offered quite a comprehensive look at many issues related to sustainability and sustainable agriculture, so I think it will be best discussed in a series of comments and vignettes, in the manner that Braungart himself addressed the issues to which he spoke:
To begin, Braungart was quite critical of the sustainability movement itself. He pointed to a couple in the crowd and said, “If I were to ask you how your relationship was going, and you were to answer, ‘oh, you know, it’s sustainable,’ I would feel quite bad for you.” He explained that the sustainability movement as it currently exists is really just “guilt management,” compelling people to do things to feel just a little less bad, or destroy just a little less of the environment, rather than focusing on how to be good or live well or have a positive impact on the environment. In his estimation, it makes people feel that basically, it would be better for the earth if we just didn’t even exist. Braungart wants to change the movement, however, to be one that is not simply more effective, but also more lively and fun.
A large part of Braungart’s lecture focused on a dichotomy that he drew between efficiency and effectiveness. He argued that modern production and consumption systems are far too focused on the golden buzzword of efficiency, while ignoring whether actions are holistically effective. Again, he turned to a relationship example, explaining that if a couple is arguing, one individual buying flowers for the other might not necessarily be the most efficient use of time or resources, but it can certainly be an effective way to work towards some reconciliation in the relationship. Braungart stated, “Littering is fun! It’s just that Coke cans are designed efficiently, rather than effectively.” Braungart’s effective cradle to cradle design principles (as opposed to the cradle to grave, aka landfill, principles of modern design) seeks to rethink material flow management and not simply create things in the quickest, easiest, cheapest way possible, but in the way that best serves the earth and every living thing upon it, effectively.
This is where Sustainable Agriculture comes in. For Braungart, it all comes back to the soil. He views the severe loss of topsoil around the world as the ultimate environmental problem, and the one that literally holds the roots of everything else. Material flow needs to put nutrients back into the soil. This is what it’s all about, for the sake of human food system survival and the survival of the planet. To do this, Braungart mentioned everything from complex, complete urban agriculture systems to farms he helped design to essentially be waste-water treatment facilities at the same time (clean water and fertilize plants all in one go), to ice cream wrappers that turn into liquid after a few hours at room temperature and have native plant seeds within them, for fun and beautiful littering!
Braungart made no qualms about the fact that he is really talking about reinventing everything, and he truly presented monumental ideas, but at this point, can we really afford to not pay attention to the most radical of innovation