Rethinking the American Dream.

Last night in the debate, Obama admitted that his support for so-called “clean” coal makes him unpopular with some environmentalists. Michael Silberman noted: “at least somewhere deep down Obama seems to realize he’s wrong on the oxymoron that is clean coal.”

The truth is, neither candidate offers the leadership and values we need to push this country into the post-fossil fuel era as quickly as scientists say we must.

Michael Pollan’s open letter to the next president, undoubtedly a sample of his forthcoming political manifesto, inspired reflections from the ever-interesting bunnynico on this issues of personal responsibility and political leadership…

“After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine. There is hope and possibility in that simple fact.”

-excerpt from Michael Pollan’s essay ”Farmer in Chief” from The New York Times, October 9, 2008.

My brother sent me this link, and I’m a little late to it, but Michael Pollan recently penned an unbelievably inspiring open letter (or, more like an essay) to the next President-Elect regarding the way people live and eat and consume in America.  I definitely think it’s well worth the reading his proposal.

I’m not perfect at all when it comes to the environment, but I do try to do little things that might make a difference, like recycling, using canvas bags to do my food shopping or washing my clothes in biodegradable detergent.  I live close to a food market in NYC where I can drop off food compost four days a week.  If each of us did something small, the world might be a little better.

If it was up to me, recycling bins would be on every street corner, all soap would be biodegradable, chemicals and artificial ingredients would be banned from foods, and all those oil companies raking in billions of dollars would be taxed at a much greater rate.  I’d also propose that sensors be placed in hallway lights in every apartment building, and even on some of the streets.  European cities conserve energy this way, why can’t the U.S. do the same?

Reading Pollan’s open letter reminded me that some of the changes that are needed in the U.S. are not just about taxes and job growth, but include fundamental changes in how we live and eat off the land.  His letter made me question whether either of the presidential candidates is willing to support such a proposal, or something similar to it.  I found myself thinking how incredible it would be to have a candidate that actually believed in the ideas that Pollan writes about.  That is the type of person I would want to see running the U.S.

People always talk about the “American Dream” in capitalistic terms as though everything is about wealth and success.  At this moment in time, my American Dream would include the implementation of Pollan’s proposal, or something substantially similar.

Here’s hoping that Obama reads Pollan’s letter and is inspired by it to make changes that might really improve the way that Americans live and consume.