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Instead of Efficiency
By Wendy Priesnitz
Efficiency is one of the hallmarks of our society. And,
on the surface, creating more desired results from the resources available
may seem benign or even beneficial, whether we’re talking agriculture,
business, government, or education. However, our quest for efficiency is,
increasingly, leading us to dangerous places.
A good example of this lies in the way we produce our
food. Take, for instance, the highly efficient “confined animal feeding
operations” (CAFOs). Critics have been warning for years that these massive,
inhumane animal factories are incubators for virulent super-pathogens, and
we’ve written about them in
Natural Life Magazine. Knowing that their crowded and unhygienic farms
put animals at risk of disease, farmers pump pigs and cattle full of
antibiotics, which is the prerequisite for antibiotic-resistant organisms
and a potential public health crisis. The industrial farming company finds
it more efficient to give drugs to healthy animals than to grow food on
small, mixed farms where conditions are humane, animals stay healthy, and
customers are nearby. This efficiency serves both corporate greed and
consumer desire for cheap food.
Capitalism is also, by definition and design, highly
efficient as it matches resources to consumer demand. Globalization is an
efficiency-driven expansion of capitalism, with its deregulation of
nation-state financial and labor markets. And we are now seeing the effects
of an integrated global economy on the environment and society. It is
increasing the devastation of natural habitats, speeding global warming, and
polluting water supplies. It has given us unsustainable development, job
insecurity, and growing socio-economic inequity. It has usurped democratic
control by multinational corporations and the financial institutions that
support them. And it is focused on growth at all costs, irrespective of
quality of life.
While it is enticing to think that these policies could
eventually lead to democratization and freedom around the world (and feed
the masses, as Monsanto would have us believe), globalization was not chosen
by voters. In fact, democracy is not particularly efficient and gets in the
way of corporate profits. Educating people about the issues, allowing for
discussion and debate, consensus-building, and implementing policies that
are not in the best interests of capitalists; they all require time and can
be messy. Dictatorship is much more efficient!
Education is one of the ways we presume to learn to
live democratically. But efficiency has become a hallmark of public
education too, creating large classes, one-size-fits-all curriculum,
standardized testing, and compulsory attendance. Efficiency has entrenched
the outmoded factory model of schooling and its pursuit of economies of
scale at a time when we are long overdue for a paradigm shift instead. We
are efficiently processing students along a conveyor belt of stale facts
instead of helping them develop their creativity, research skills,
adaptation abilities, and love of learning, all of which will help them live
more democratically and productively.
Fortunately, it seems that the issues of the day are
providing some of us with the inspiration to embrace less efficient but more
robust systems in all these aspects of life. I think we could be approaching
the tipping point, where enough people recognize that efficiency is not
always the most important thing and that the “experts” don’t always have our
best interests at heart.
Many more of us are moving back to basics, spending
less money on courses and electronic toys for our children but giving them
more time to play outside, growing our own veggie gardens, leaving our cars
at home when walking or cycling are possible, taking control over our own
health and wellness, shopping less and mending more, getting to know our
neighbors and enjoying time spent with family. These things aren’t
necessarily efficient, but they are creating habits that will ultimately
make us healthier, better governed, and more educated. I’ve seen a huge
increase in interest in these topics since my partner
Rolf and I started
Natural Life Magazine over forty years ago.
Hitting the ecological, economic, and ethical walls all
at the same time has got our attention. It remains to be seen how we will
work ourselves out of the mess. But I do know that more people than ever
before have a sense of the impact their actions have on the world. So I
continue to have hope for a sustainable future – where capitalism and
consumerism do not cause human suffering, and where individuals take
responsibility for discontinuing and cleaning up environmental and economic
devastation.
Wendy Priesnitz is
the editor and co-founder of Natural Life Magazine and the author of 13
books.
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