by Ricky Jimenez
This column takes a bow with this issue. It is crafted with both the consumers and the business sector in mind.
It seeks to discuss the wherefores and wherewithal with which consumers and the business sector can do the right thing for themselves and for the environment and end up enjoying a good healthy lifestyle and laughing all the way to the bank, respectively.
“After all”, said environment leader David Bower, “there is no business to be done on a dead planet”.
This kind of thinking which this columnist calls “eco smart” actually began during the 1992 Earth Summit on Rio de Janeiro. Participating countries then agreed to balance economic development with environment protection. The Philippines was a party to the agreement of global action for sustainable development. (Think Global, Act Local). Hence, we had a Philippine Agenda 21 in 1996 to guide business activities to limit outputs within the planet Earth’s carrying capacity.
A successful American businessman Yvon Chouinard founder of the famous Petagonia brand, put it this way: “What society should be working on are products that people need, not products people want because they are bored. Things like food, alternative energy and land for agriculture. Those are the only safe investments.” (Mother Earth Magazine, December 2009 – January 2010 issue).
Medical, environmental and behavioral studies have determined four (4) realities of modern day living:
Our present diet (fatty, salty and sweet) is causing us to be sick;
Our current lifestyle is destroying the environment;
There is overemphasis on wants rather than on needs;
Planet Earth has become too polluted, over exploited and over-mined.
A consumer movement called Consumer Action For Sustainable and Healthy Lifestyle (CASHL) started in Davao City on April 2008 is positioning itself as a focal point from where consumers will take serious and active interest in the quality of the food they eat, the things they buy, etc, in order to attain sustainable and healthy lifestyle. Maybe, hopefully, something’s gotta give.
With greater public appreciation for safe and healthy foods, farmers, food processors and traders will gradually rethink their priorities toward sustainable agriculture (organic farming would be ideal), and environment-friendly food processing systems in order to keep their profit margin and even vie for the lucrative market abroad.
Signs that eco smart lifestyle are picking momentum among consumers and the business sector are as follows:
The proliferation of herbal plant-based dietary supplements and personal care products using natural ingredients;
Supermarkets promoting cloth shopping bags;
Marked decrease on demand for pork among market goers in the traditional public markets;
Some fastfood chains are offering less fatty menus, with emphasis or fresh green leafy vegetables;
A big jump in the sales for herbal tea drinks in plastic bottles;
Greater public awareness on the risk of using lead-tainted toys, pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables;
Better public support for tree-planting activities.
It is a given that modern lifestyle cannot change overnight. For this to happen, it will take a lot of concerted efforts from concerned sectors of society to change consumer and business mindsets. What may hasten the education process is the increasing mortality from faulty diet, sedentary life vices, environment-unfriendly goods. As they say, figures or statistics don’t lie. And they are more convincing!
This writer takes comfort in the thought that we cannot change others, but if we change ourselves, we may end up changing the world, (email your comments on rjrjrajimenez@gmail.com)
