Kate Wing's Blog
Greener than thou
August 22, 2007
Posted by Kate Wing in The Media and the Environment
At the Mos Def show on Saturday, I stood near a guy with a shirt that read "Militant Vegan". He had a fairly serious demeanor despite the sunny day and tight rhymes coming from the stage, so I started speculating just how militant militant was. Would he be protesting in front of the nearby fried chicken stand? Or unplugging their fryer? Did he refuse to eat vegetables he hadn't grown himself, so he knew exactly how they were treated? Should I put down my taco and back away slowly?
If you work for an environmental group, the debate over how green is green enough is never too far from your mind, and now it's spreading into the larger cultural discussion via sources like the NYT, Grist, Worldchanging, and Ed Begley Jr., among others. There are folks who believe small individual changes will never be enough while others feel equally strongly that incremental personal change is what truly changes the world. Give me five minutes and a bottle of scotch at an NRDC retreat and I could sit you down with people in both of those camps (but don't let them talk you into a poker game).
Fact is, you probably need both: rules that make incentives for more efficient refrigerators and organic foods, and people to buy those fridges and stock them with local produce. Top down and bottom up. I don't think either approach is superior, and I applaud anyone who's working to make change, however small it may seem. It's the South Park approach: buy a hybrid if you can because it's a good car and it saves you gas, but you don't need to be smug about it. Smugness doesn't tend to win friends or influence people. At least it's never worked for me. Your results may vary.
Anyhow, the set ended and the Militant Vegan and I passed each other uneventfully in the crowd. Little did he know that back in my college days I ran with the Bad Seeds, a group of botany majors who rescued abandoned houseplants and put protected 'worm crossing' areas after it rained. Yeah, I could have told him a thing or two about vegetable activism. Even if I didn't have the t-shirt to prove it.
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Comments
Eric — Aug 23 2007 09:43 PM
There's always more you can do, right? Where it gets "militant" is where we start going backwards...
Mark Powell — Aug 24 2007 12:50 AM
Yo Kate, edgy stuff here. It seems a bit scary to counterpose vegetable activism and how green is green enough, but then you brought it home and I like it. Good for you. Blog like this everyday and I'll have to quit in shame.
FWIW, I think you're right about the need both idea, but I don't know about this militant vegan/Bad Seeds business. Bit too effete for me..How many vegans can dunk a basketball?