Consumer Priorities

On my way to the University Union, I grabbed a quick lunch at Campus Market, one of the many places in San Luis Obispo that sells produce grown on Cal Poly’s land. I wondered if the lettuce in my salad was grown on campus or if it was cheaper to buy produce shipped in from elsewhere in California. The UU was bustling with students exiting the auditorium when I arrived shortly before one. Nevertheless, Chumash Auditorium was about two-thirds full at the time the “Tech Solutions 3: Agriculture” presentation started early Thursday afternoon. The first presenter, Professor David Headrick, talked about the effects on climate change on insect populations. While avoiding “doom and gloom” rhetoric, he did mention that insects that are considered pests will likely increase as the Earth’s temperature rises. Due to insect food supply shortages, many otherwise benign insects will begin eating crops as an alternate form of nourishment. Also, insect populations will spread more rapidly in search of food. The second presenter, Dr. Stuart Styles, discussed water management and irrigation. Due to global warming, snow pack levels in the Sierras have begun to decline. The snow pack offers a large amount of stored water that is released slowly over the summer to supply cities and farms all over California. New water management techniques will be needed in the future to keep the agriculture industry productive in the coming years. The final speaker, Ryan Rich, is a local organic farmer. He discussed how increasingly difficult it has become to predict weather and insect conditions as the climate has changed.

The Focus the Nation event centered on the possible solutions to climate change. It became clear that to stop climate change, it would take a large investment of time, effort, and money. Bill McKibben’s introduction to Thoreau’s Walden implores the reader to consider two important questions regarding climate change: “How much is enough?” and “How do I know what is my true desire?” In response to these questions, it is easy to say “Whatever it takes!” and “To stop global warming, of course!” However, a truly honest response to the second question will no doubt change one’s answer to the first. For most Americans, the honest response to the second question will likely involve a subject that Thoreau spends a great deal of time considering in the first chapter of Walden: economics. Would I be willing to spend a little extra money for a salad if the produce was locally grown? If my lettuce was grown in the Central Valley and shipped to San Luis Obispo, there is unnecessary harm caused to the environment from the excess packaging and the over 200 miles the lettuce likely traveled on a truck, not to mention the diminished nutrition and freshness the lettuce experiences on its journey. It is, however, cheaper to buy produce in bulk that is grown on large corporate farms and have it shipped to a supermarket than to buy from a small local grower.

To a great extent, conservationism and environmental stewardship are more expensive in the short term to the average American than the status quo. There are many examples of this phenomenon: it is cheaper to keep a conventional car than to buy an electric one. It is cheaper to keep old windows on a house than to replace them with energy efficient windows. A critical examination of McKibben’s first question with these effects in mind might yield a response such as “As much as is economically feasible.”

The problem with this line of reasoning is that the economic advantages are only in the short term. In the case of my salad, the price to produce, package, and ship the lettuce will only increase as world temperatures rise. All three speakers at the Focus the Nation presentation, whether explicitly or not, brought up the issue of economics. The increase in pest populations will make farming less efficient and more costly. The change in water resources will necessitate very expensive infrastructure changes and a higher price for a scarcer resource. The less predictable weather and insect conditions will cause problems for all farmers and make produce more expensive to grow. Although the harm caused to the environment from the production of my salad represents a very small percentage of the world’s energy usage and pollutant production, a small investment in the form of a more expensive salad today just might result in a cheaper salad in the future. When this concept is expanded to all forms of industry, it becomes clear that while environmental stewardship requires monetary investment, the long term results can be both environmentally and economically advantageous.

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