For months I have been bothered by this article on the NY Times blog “Freakenomics”. For the most part I think the authors do a great job of applying economic theory to decipher the randomness and contradictions of modern life, but in this one particular post I think they went a little far. They attempted to address a reader’s question about the economics and sustainability (in terms of resource-intensiveness) of everyone growing their own food.
I hesitated to post a response because the comments were very effective in addressing the issues I had with their response – Namely (1) their inept example of homemade ice-cream to asses the value and efficiency of growing a garden and (2) treating efficiency as the ultimate determinant of somethings value in society. So in internet-time my response to this is geologic, but well-seasoned.
The reader’s question was originally posed to Michael Pollan and I assume was a response to this Earth Day article on the bothering to do ones part for the world by growing a garden. On the first read of this essay I thought it was a bit offensive and not as meaningful as he has the potential for. His use of a Chinese ‘evil twin’ to illustrate the futility of going green addresses the difficult fact that growing nations are becoming as limitless in their resource use as we are in the US but seems to shift the blame from our own communities’ contributions. His next door neighbor likely offsets any good his green efforts are making. And anyway it just isn’t helpful to think about your small individual efforts of conservation and sustainability compared to others who are living wastefully. Because forget evil twin, it’s way beyond a one to one canceling out- the negative lifestyles so outweigh the positive ones, it’s too overwhelming to even go there.
So Pollan was working to extol the virtues of growing a garden despite how insignificant it may seem. And this reader wonders what the practicality is of everyone growing their own food. As if we are there yet! Wouldn’t it be grand if this was an issue we had to deal with. There are lots of ways to rationalize yourself out of growing a garden- its hard work, you have no space, you don’t know how, it sounds boring…but not by wondering if its really so efficient for you to grow a garden, concerned that if everyone did it would be a wasteful use of their lawns.
Unlike the Freakenomics guys, I really don’t think the biggest concern with food should be efficiency. This is the kind of bottom-line thinking that got us into the wasteful and problematic system we are trying to reform today. The top concerns for food production should be health, flavor, and fairness. Using this reductionist analysis of the number of motions made towards the quantity of food we produce apparently works out that specialization and centralization is more efficient- but what does it mean for our society that most of us take no responsibility for what we eat all day? I don’t know that anyone would argue that this system of measuring success by the least number of motions required has gotten us anywhere desirable.
I’ve been thinking about these issues over the summer while creating our first substantial kitchen garden. While first starting out, heaving the dirt into a pile through the age-old practice of double digging under the hot and blue July sky I certainly felt inefficient. I am not great at shoveling and we are just learning the requirements of producing a reliable vegetable garden. But is it any more efficient for me to be sitting in my lawn chair reading a book eating tomatoes grown hundreds of miles away by someone who doesn’t have the opportunity for leisure? I could work on my tan and maybe later drive to the gym rather than wielding a shovel out in my yard. If we are measuring efficiency with the few bearing the bulk of work for the many it becomes necessary to weigh efficiency with fairness, with sharing the burden of everyone’s needs. I don’t really enjoy pulling the cat tongue textured green beans from awkward vines, but better me than anyone else right? Because I work in an office all day does that give me some kind of pass for not taking responsibility for my own food because I am not that good at it?
Specialization may work out on paper, but the fact that most of us do the same thing all day doesn’t make for the happiest and most fulfilled populous. I’m with Pollan that you should try growing some of your own food, because you can- for all that this ability means in today’s world.
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