Many of the products produced today contain carcinogens, teratogens, mutagens, and other chemicals that jeopardize living things. Every time we spend money, we give a vote to the system (e.g., $1 = 1 vote). What we buy, keep, save, throw away, and waste says a lot about what we stand for. Whether we like it or not, it speaks volumes about what we care about and the intentionality of our consumer choices. The consequences of our purchases might be hidden from us, but our purchases support the manufacturing practices of the products we choose to buy.
Many of the toxic chemicals and products we produce persist long beyond their functional life. For example, household carpets generally have an installation life of 10-20 years but last 19,980 more years in a landfill. 3.5 billion pounds of carpet are thrown away in America every year.
-- Jose Vargas, “Lifetime Product Liability,” National Association of Educational Buyers
Awareness—investigating and educating ourselves about the products we purchase and how they are made and where they come from—empowers us to make educated, conscious, intentional choices to help our economy better reflect a healthy ecology. The ecological accounting of a product tells us about the total energy cost to produce it, as well as the global pollution generated from the materials and production industry. Locally produced goods will always have lower embodied energy than goods manufactured hundreds or thousands of miles away. Instead of supporting national or international corporations or chains, making a commitment to buying local whenever possible keeps more money in our local communities and has many other benefits. Furthermore, when we first consider buying something used instead of new, we continue to make use of something that was already made and prevent it from ending up in a landfill.
The consumer/commuter lifestyle has one of the most deleterious effects on overall human well-being. We need communities to become more focused on their local communities and more balanced as both consumers and producers. Carrying capacity does not merely depend on the number of members of a community; we can increase capacity by becoming producers—we need more people to grow and share food, more people to return to artisanship and running local businesses, etc. If your community doesn’t have a local store that you and your neighbors wish to frequent, consider joining together to start a local business. If starting a local business isn’t financially feasible, consider alternatives such as trade posts, using online networking resources, etc. Together, we have a greater chance to be creative, successful, and committed to creating an economy that we believe in!
