While I was on vacation recently, trying to forget all my problems, I couldn't help but notice the stock market plummeting. Oh, I tried not to pay attention. But being in business, it was hard not to. My very social littlest daughter made dear friends with two girls on the beach (she wasn't worried about the stock market one bit!). And it turned out their dad worked on Wall Street -- so at the end of the day, I couldn't help but ask him what he thought of what was happening.
"The problem is," he said thoughtfully and worriedly, "no one knows where the growth is going to come from." After all, stock markets and economies always thrive on growth, and the traditional means of growth are slowing around the world -- even in China. So, how can we continue to "grow" in a world where we have consumed more than we need, and destroyed our precious resources in the process?
For a moment, my stomach churned and I had a fleeting feeling that we are all doomed. But then I looked around. He and I, two random strangers who met because we were staying at the same hotel, were standing together at an event that was buzzing with excitement, sold out -- a major clue to our future of growth right before our eyes.
What was the event? Well, that's another random story.
I had pulled into the hotel that afternoon after a bit of sightseeing (OK, I confess, shopping!) to see a sign that said: "Farm fresh vendors park here." Happy-looking people wearing cool-looking clothes were mingling around. I stopped at the front desk to ask what was up, and they said it was a sold-out event, but as hotel guests we could attend. "Some Rhode Island local farm thing," the manager said. Well, of course, being me, MOI, Maria of Maria's Farm Country Kitchen, why would I even think of missing it?
It was a Farm Fresh Rhode Island Local Food Fest, and the festival happened to be honoring one of my dear friends, a fellow board member of the Rodale Institute, Michel Nischan, chef at the Dressing Room in Westport, Connecticut, and author of Sustainably Delicious. (I shocked the bejeezus out of him when I appeared at the reception!) Also being honored were the great, epic, amazing heroine of organic food for all, Nell Newman, of Newman's Own Organic, and their mutual friend and associate Gus Schumacher. All three of them are involved in Michel's nonprofit Wholesome Wave. I mean, what are the chances??!! We celebrated. We ate amazing food. I tried to keep track of my little one (and later found pages and pages of photos of her making faces in the awesome free photo booth). And we watched the sun set over the harbor as the sailboats passed by.
I'm getting to the growth part, truly I am.
As I was walking back to our cabin on the beach (and Lucia was flying down the path on her scooter), I thought about where the growth was going to come from, and it hit me. There is one thing that's still been growing, even during the darkest days of the recession: the organics industry. But not just the organics industry -- also the local food industry; the sustainable, renewable energy industry; and the services around health and healing industry. Sure, we are still small. But the organics industry, at $30 billion a year, is now bigger than the publishing industry. And part of playing the market successfully is picking something small that will grow big over time. (Trust me, I bought Amazon.com stock back when people thought it was a joke... who's laughing now?!)
Wouldn't it be amazing if the growth of our future came from industries that are actually making the world a BETTER place rather than sucking out the value, spitting out the waste, and leaving a trail of damage and destruction in their wake? Maybe this is our global tipping point -- the point at which the world realizes that you can't create healthy economies without having businesses and services that respect people and the planet. Wouldn't that be amazing and wonderful if it turns out to be true? Perhaps, if we believe it, we can make it true. After all, we've already accomplished much, much more than the early naysayers said we would.
I'm betting my money on the future growth of businesses that are organic, renewable, sustainable, and good for everyone. Organic growth is the only growth that actually improves things over time, rather than destroying things in the process.
Maybe nothing is random after all.
For more from Maria Rodale, go to www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com.
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Socialism vs Capitalism
http://www.newworldparty.org/2011/08/socialism-versus-capitalism.html
Because of socialism (borrow, spend, deficits, debts), our economy has been fake for many years and has grown by stealing money from children. Read more:
Fake Economy
http://www.newworldparty.org/2009/01/fake-economy.html
Stealing from Children
http://www.newworldparty.org/2008/11/stealing-from-children.html
What percentage of the economy is run by the government and has the government's share been growing or shrinking? What percentage of the governments' debt is from social vs corporate programs? How many years have we been running deficits?
Corporationism/corporatism/selfish capitalism is a big cause of the problems in America. The rich are paying too little tax while squeezing the less well off out of their jobs. Thing is the situation won't change until big business is stopped from buying off the politicians.
Mind you, socialism doesn't work either... maybe social capitalism?
Thanks for both of parts of this - the problem and the hope for a solution...
Illinois started to create jobs as the national economy began to recover. But just when Illinois’s economy seemed to be turning around, lawmakers passed record tax increases in January of this year. Since then, Illinois’s employment numbers have done nothing but decline. Illinois' lawmakers voted to raise the state's personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent; and the corporate tax from 4.8 to 7 percent
Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report. After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm payroll jobs in July. The report also said Illinois’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent. This marks the third consecutive month of increases in the unemployment rate.
The Income Tax hikes are driving out small business, while Obama-Care is killing both large AND small businesses.
Isn't this Obama's State of Hope and Change?
Will it be a momentary return to more unsustainable growth, based upon a high burn rate of discretionary income spent on impulsive consumption? Not likely, given the diminishing economic status of the middle class.
Or will we have the insight to abandon the model of unending expansion in a finite world?
We might be able to goose the numbers in the near term by addressing our society's most critical ongoing problems through innovation, technology and education. Immediately within the grasp of possibility are renewable energy, medical efficacy, transportation efficiency, water, waste management, and as Rodale points out, healthful food production.
Long term, humankind will have to come to terms with the finiteness of this planet. Sure, dream big, never limit the possibilities. However, our most pressing problems generate their own timelines. Our responses may not be timely.
"Sustainability" is not just another buzz word. The concept will survive it's current popularity. Ongoing feedback from our world shows that our consumptive lifestyle choices that serve as drivers for our politics and economics, are no longer sustainable. The numbers tell the story. Our cantilevered expectations are not sustainable. There are no virgin frontiers to supply raw resources or to drain off population pressures. We have what is contained within the "lifeboat" and what we can make from it.
Our whole model needs retooling, re-conceptualizing. Patches and tweaks will not do in the longer term. Time to dust off a copy of "Small is Beautiful".
Couldn't agree with you more on this comment but the problem here is that the republican party is against all these things. They don't believe in global warming so in turn don't support renewable energy and the likes. They want to drill for more oil and they don't care about what shores they are destroying. And when it comes to health and wellness, the only thing they see wrong with what is happening now is that there is too much doctor malpractice suits. Some of them have gone as far as railing against michelle obama's campaign to fight childhood obesity (yes I'm talking about you Sarah Palin!) So really the problem we have with growth in this country is the republican party fighting to stop it!
Or need to work two or three jobs.