“Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment” –The United States Environmental Protection Agency
Sustainability is a really interesting concept to me; and maybe that is because I grew up in an environment that was definitely not sustainable. Like it was so unsustainable that it was to the point where if we were to enter some sort of apocalypse where the stores closed and we ran out of fuel and what not, not may people would no how to survive. Sure we have a few farms here and there, but these farms do not supply us with our main source of food. In fact, I think they barely supply the farmer with enough food. But with Connecticut’s climate, that is kind of expected. Most of our goods are imported; as much of America is today.
I then wondered what we could do to make ourselves a little bit more sustainable, even if it was just creating a sustainable economy or working to trim down on exporting. I began looking at some examples, and a lot of this I actually did my senior year of high school in my AP Environmental Science class.
Lets start out with an example of sustainable farming. Located in Swoope, VA, Polyface Farms is an incredibly unique farm were the main belief is that “Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world” (the Salatin family). Not only do they work to practice clean farming and work to keep their animals on natural diets, but they also do all the work BY THEMSELVES, including the killing of the meat. This means that they never export their food. In fact, it never leaves the farm until after it is sold. They do not allow their foods to be exported unless a person from out of town drives all the way to them to get their products. And people do! They will go 150 miles out of the way to get this clean food for there families because there are so few places in the country that still practice clean farming. Click on the picture below and it will take you to the Polyface Farm web page where I encourage you to learn more!
There are other was to build a sustainable community as well, such as an economically stable community. This means that the the community is able to keep itself afloat through its own trade and commerce. Did you know that Happy Valley got its name from 1929 when the stock market crashed but they were generally unaffected by the Great Depression? Apparently since the township was nestled in between ‘mountains’ (which I would describe has hills, but you Pennsylvania natives continually refer to as mountains, but I digress) they had created a self sustaining environment where all of their resources were typically locally grown and sold right here! I found this extremely interesting, but it definitely makes since! Plus, even today you can see a ton of ma-and-pop stores littered around State College, celebrating the traditions of local business over big business.
This theory that small businesses could keep an economy afloat is still being utilized today. Many towns are attempting to reinvent their downtown areas, including my home town. Instead of zoning, which is zoning areas of commercialized business and other areas of residential living, you would integrate the two. This would look something like State College’s downtown, where people live in apartments either above or near stores and restaurants and cars typically aren’t kept by these residents. They instead use public transportation or walk. This is really not common in many towns in America. Sure, you see this in Boston or New York City, but suburbia is full of cars bring people from work to the store then home. If we worked and shopped where we lived, we could cut down on fuel use (which helps the environment), we could keep our local economy strong, and we could make a sustainable community.