Published: August 26, 2008 10:27 pm      

Going green on the cheap

EDMOND — It used to be that when someone said they were green, they were admitting to being jealous. Now I proclaim that I’m not a bit jealous and I’m trying to be “green” but for a variety of reasons.

There’s an old saying that has been ascribed to American colonists that says, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Little girls might have embroidered samplers with these rugged ideals in the olden days, but now economists and credit counselors all across the country are urging us to reconsider our spending.

Environmentalists must call that attitude “green.” The less we buy, the less we waste. The less we buy the less packaging ends up in landfills. The less we buy, the more use we have from the stuff we already own. The less we buy, the fewer trips to the store we make in our fossil-fuel-slurping cars. The less we buy, the less we impact the planet.

In my deepest gut, I don’t think Americans are too worried about the amount of pollution their consumer habits cause, which is minuscule in comparison with other nations with horribly polluted air, water and landscape. Further, buying less is exactly the opposite of what “The Green Movement” really wants. I would love to hear some politician promote the idea of buying less to improve the environment. The Greenies would withdraw their support.

I humbly submit that businesses that use the environment as a hook are in business to make money like everybody else. They don’t want us to stay home and use what we already have, they want us to come to the store and buy large quantities of their products. That’s the unavoidable irony of the environmental business. The last thing in the world they want you to do is to stop shopping. They would convince you that you need their special equipment and additives to compost properly, when in truth, if you throw the garbage in a pile and add some grass, it’ll attract flies and other varmints and rot away into mother earth without any help from Al Gore.

I recently visited a health food store in search of bulk soy beans. I want to grind them up in my electric grinder and add them to baked goods to beef up the high-quality, low-cost protein and fiber in our diet. But they were so expensive, I would be better off buying filet mignon if I want high-quality, low-cost protein. I stared at the 1-pound package of little white beans wondering if Jack might have traded them for a cow and if I plant them, a beanstalk will bring me to a castle in the clouds.

If not magic, why were these ordinary beans so expensive? Then I noticed the word “organic” on the label and realized that the business wanted me to pay five times the cost of most beans because the farmer didn’t spend the extra money on pesticides to keep bugs out. He hauled manure from the cow pen and the chicken coop to fertilize his fields instead of buying it from the farm supply store. Since the word “organic” doesn’t require that my precious beans were hand picked, nor that the farmer hauled them to the market in a wheel barrow nor were they sold in a biodegradable sack, the only difference is the “green” effect on my psyche and the cash register.

The irony of the whole organic or green idea is that every farmer is motivated to take good care of his soil and control infestations with the least harm to his property. My research suggests that most agriculture would qualify under the legal definitions of “organic,” but the certification and verification process is so cumbersome that farmers serve Americans better by spending the certification money on bigger volumes at lower costs.

Another irony in the green movement is the idea of using corn oil produced fuels as “green” fuels. Corn is extremely hard on the soil and corn producers must amend the soil with additives and leave their fields fallow every few years to recover some of the nutrients stripped from the soil by the plant.

The bottom line of the “Green movement” is the bottom line. It’s a big, money-making business masquerading as our fairy godmother. I’m not buying. I’m going to impact the green in my wallet and the green planet by doing like the folks who built this nation did and make good use of the resources I have by buying less. It’s not my fault if I waste and pollute less along the way.

BETH STEPHENSON is an Edmond resident.