Giving into Convenience at What Cost?

America is selfish, there I said it. But before you start throwing some of Barbara Kingsolver’s Dolly Parton tomatoes at me, please hear me out. American consumers have the luxury to eat whatever they want whenever they want, but as Kingsolver indicates in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle we pay a heavy price “in untallied debts that will be paid by our children in the currency of extinctions, economic unraveling, and global climate change.” It’s true that Americans consume resources without any regard to the consequences their actions will have on future generations. But as with any greedy consumption of limited resources, you ultimately reach the plight of vacuity and have no choice but to adapt and transform your habits of consumption.

Kingsolver is an atypical model of transformation. Her admirable mission to eat locally grown food is more than a means to eat healthily. It’s a protest against the manner in which we produce and procure the foods we eat. Throughout Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Kingsolver adamantly expresses the absurd amount of oil that goes into producing and transporting food. America alone, “glugs down a quarter of all the fuel” consumption in the world, and we only represent 5% of the world’s population. Since the 1970s the rapid depletion of the world’s oil reserves has been a known fact and nearly four decades later not much progress to wean ourselves off this diminishing commodity has been made. Consequently, the price of oil continues to skyrocket thereby increasing the cost of production and ultimately the cost of living for the American consumer.

Imagine the incredible impact an oil-free America would have on the nation’s economy. First off, an oil-free nation can only be oil-free through utilization of alternative energy sources. Alternative energy research and production would create a whole new industry for employment, thus creating jobs for the millions of Americans who are currently unemployed. Additionally, alternative energy sources such as solar and wind are clean sources of fuel that won’t pollute the environment. But, most importantly, envision the lives saved from unessential global oil wars.

For decades America ignored the momentous transition that needed to be made to rid ourselves of our dependence on oil. It’s a transition that requires true leadership and massive effort and funding. In times like these we turn to the government for guidance. However, the government has enormously failed in promoting alternative energy research (current administration excluded), in fact, they promote the use of oil by providing corporations tax-deductions for transportation. I’m sure America’s continued dependence on oil is a result of oil company lobbyists and the ever so redundant theme of government stupidity in regards to the future and what’s best. Consequently, the effort to transform our habits rests solely on individuals. Individual crusaders like Barbara Kingsolver, who takes initiative in being energy independent even if it’s in the form of something as simple as eating locally grown food. Kingsolver lives a life that we should all pursue. Now, I’m not saying to start logging in daily entries into your garden journal, unless of course you want to. However, if each individual made a small change whether it is in the form of eating locally, or expressing preference for greener sources of energy, the change would be astronomical. Successful corporations would have no choice but to supply what consumers demanded.

America has continuously given into convenience. An early visionary, Buckminster Fuller, recognized this selfishness and expressed it in his 1969 book Utopia or Oblivion: “The exploiters of fossil fuels, coal and oil, say it costs less to produce and burn the savings account. This is analogous to saying it takes less effort to rob a bank than to do the work which the money deposited in the bank represents. The question is cost to whom? To our great-grandchildren, who will have no fossil fuels to turn the machines? I find that the ignorant acceptance by world society’s presently deputized leaders of the momentarily expedient and the lack of constructive, long-distance thinking-let alone comprehensive thinking-…render dubious the case for humanity’s earthian future.” In accordance with visionaries like Fuller and Kingsolver, America needs to acknowledge the effects its selfishness will have on future generations. For once, we must eradicate our reluctance to endure immediate strain for the promise of long-term advancement.


Do our current eating habits make us selfish? And, how far are we willing to go to maintain the luxury of eating whatever whenever?