The American Mindset and Sustainability
This article was written by a guest contributor, Rania Hassan. Read about Rania here.
Have you ever corrected someone’s behavior and they responded by telling you, “well it’s a free country”? How many times has someone told you that “America is the greatest country in the world”? How many times has the reason been freedom? Americans, including myself, are very proud of our first amendment, the right to freely express yourself, the right to practice the religion you desire, the right to assemble, the right to freedom of the press, and the right to petition. The first amendment is everything that makes America the country it is. However, that alone is a very simplified version of freedom in America. I’ve always believed that some of the reasons we have been unable to address sustainability as a country is because of American’s mindset of freedom. I believe that Americans have a heightened sense of individualized freedom that goes to an extreme. I’m obviously not against freedom, I just believe there are always going to be limitations. We put limitations on our freedom constantly with the laws that are passed to keep us all safe: seatbelts, chemical laws, etc. I believe our inability to deal with environmental issues as a country can be explained by American’s acute sense of freedom, our capitalistic economy, and our individualistic society.
American’s notion of freedom is centered around the idea of the individual being able to do what they desire. Without bounds, that's a pretty dangerous mentality when you actually think about it. No one should feel that they are free to do whatever they please with no consequences. It’s just like what we’re taught in physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The same goes for our choices in life. We believe we are free to do whatever we please, but the reality is, unless we desire complete anarchy, that’s not entirely true. Americans have also used their notion of freedom to justify wars, invasions, and other unethical actions. It’s important to remember that when the constitution was written, our freedoms were not truly available to everyone, despite its stating that “all men are created equal.” There is far more complexity to our freedom than we give it credit for.
This perspective on personal freedom extends to our food system as well. Our current mentality is that we should have access to anything we desire. For example, when you go to the grocery store, there are numerous options of nearly every product/food for you to choose from, despite the huge environmental impact associated with providing such a wide array. What’s more, if we look at produce, you can find almost all of the same options available all year long, even when many of these options are not in season, thus requiring huge international markets to cater to our ever-growing demands and expectations. Because we want the freedom of choice at all times, we expect to have access to all products at all times. This is one of the many strains currently harming our agricultural systems. In other countries, such as Egypt, you can’t get produce that isn’t in season unless you go to a large grocery store, which are not widely available. This places less stress on both the local and global markets, as well as the environment that supports these markets.
Our desires and demands are what drive our capitalistic economy. Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. Private owners are always going to do what is best for their company and what will make them the most profit, regardless of the consequences. This is why 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions. One of the industries that contributes the most to our global emissions is agriculture, specifically that related to meat production. Our insatiable demand for meat has pushed the industry to overlook environmental impacts and animal cruelty concerns in pursuit of profits and growth. Most of the agricultural land we have is used to grow corn specifically to feed cows destined for the slaughterhouse. Meanwhile, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and other livestock are often packed tightly into pens and warehouses with barely any room to walk, and given hormones and antibiotics to make them so big that they sometimes can’t even walk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, farming companies such as Allen Harim Farms and Delmarva Poultry industry have chosen to kill nearly 2 million chickens. This is not the only instance of farming companies choosing to kill a large scale of their animals in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than paying to take care of the animals, large amounts of animals were slaughtered and left uneaten by these companies simply because the demand for them had decreased to the point that it was cheaper to kill them than keep them alive. This injustice must stop. Private companies and corporations need to take personal responsibility for their actions and make an effort to reduce their environmental impact. Unfortunately, that is hard to incentivize in a capitalist economy. Profit will always be the driving force behind their actions. Our capitalistic economy exploits our heightened sense of freedom by telling us that if we can have it, then it’s ours for the taking. This mindset is not only dangerous but unsustainable.
Another component of this is America’s individualistic culture, where our society is characterized by individualism or the prioritization of the individual over the entire group. Individualistic cultures are oriented around the self, being independent rather than identifying with a group and the needs of the group as a whole. Being part of an individualistic culture, most Americans tend to think about “me” not “we.” America is not the only individualistic country, but I believe Americans have a heightened sense of freedom even compared to other individualistic cultures. Collectivist cultures should theoretically have more success with the implementation of sustainability-initiatives because they tend to focus on the “we” instead of the “me”, and these initiatives have a larger impact on the former than the latter. Usually, our thinking of others only stretches to our family and friends (not always, of course). This is one of the reasons we haven't been able to keep COVID under control—wearing a mask is meant to protect those around you, not just you. So, with a collective problem like climate change, the solutions are unsurprisingly based on reducing our “freedom of choice” and thinking of the collective global community. The same applies to our food systems. Food waste is in large part exacerbated by this individualistic culture. Food businesses have policies in place to decrease liability on the various parties responsible for this food waste. For example, the concern of protecting oneself from a lawsuit typically far outweighs the huge benefits of donating extra food from a restaurant to a homeless shelter. Some European countries have taken initiatives in passing laws to make it easier to donate unused food to those in need, however, these initiatives are still slow-moving and not as widely adopted as they could be. To be fair, there are some restaurants who wish to do this but simply can’t because of the laws in place. However, the fact that these laws are in place further exemplifies how our culture, focused on the individual and not the collective, prevents us from helping those in need and reducing food waste in the food system.
Climate change, as well as so many other environmental issues, are collectivist issues. The increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused an increase in atmospheric temperature, which is resulting in rising sea levels, desertification, acid rain, and many other destructive ramifications. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, countries contributing the least amount of carbon-emissions are going to suffer the most. The United States is one of the highest emitters of carbon dioxide per capita, and second behind China for greatest emissions in total, and still, it will likely fare far better than most low-emitting countries. For this reason, the Paris Climate Agreement, an agreement amongst many members of the United Nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, was a monumental move in the fight against climate change. As one of the highest emitters of carbon dioxide, the United States now has to consider the countries that will be most affected by their emissions and their reliance on fossil fuels. The United States’s reliance on fossil fuels, due to its cheap price and the incredible influence of the fossil fuel lobbies on politicians, is also the result of a non-collectivist approach largely catalyzed by politicians who are primarily concerned with present monetary benefits for themselves rather than the future monetary benefit of a climatically-stable, renewable energy powered society. Currently, President Trump has officially removed the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, and we have to wait until President-Elect Joe Biden re-enters the United States into the agreement to begin cooperating on a global scale again. Fortunately, it seems likely that the incoming administration will present some collectivist legislation that can aid many of these problems.
I know it might sound like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, but I sincerely believe there is hope. I believe the younger generations are gradually changing their understanding of freedom. Newer generations are going to have to face issues the previous generations haven’t, such as climate change, and these issues require collectivist solutions. We are witnessing these younger generations stand up for issues such as climate change, racial justice, healthcare, gender equality, immigration, and others for the collective good at scales that haven’t been seen in decades. I believe that our notion of freedom will continue to change with future generations, as long as we remember that it's never too late. But these newer generations can’t fix climate change on their own, it is up to all of us to create a more sustainable future.