Again, another topic on this thread I have never thought about. It would be interesting to see how garbage up to our knees would affect our consumer "needs." I only shop at thrift stores, and those are always full of plenty of perfectly good items just tossed away. I've also recently started dumpster diving in order to rescue goods deemed "not worthy." Starbucks throws away a lot of bread...
Speaking of that, there are also businesses that will purposefully destroy merchandise that is being thrown out just to keep dumpster divers from getting a useful or quality score. Wastefulness, at least in this country, is out of control.
That pisses me off so much. What's the point!? Just because they can't benefit from it, that doesn't mean anyone else shouldn't either.
I'm reading a book for one of my classes, and it speaks of Native Americans and how they went about gathering food. I believe that Natives had it right. By keeping a harmonious balance with nature, waste was nonexistent. Sure, you would have those who would probably perish from lack of food, but that kept populations at levels Mother Earth could maintain.
Call me a hippy if you'd like, but I'm firm in this belief of being a 'Leaver,' not a 'Taker,' as Daniel Quinn put it in his book Ishmael.Native Americans exploited the landscape in a way that maintained species population and diversity. In California, for instance, Indians pruned shrubs for the purpose of basket making, but took care to do so during the dormant fall and winter period when the plant's future health would not be jeopardized. Similarly, shirting agriculture tended to minim nature patterns in a way that modern agriculture, with its emphasis on single-crop production, does not. Second, dietary security, not the maximization of crop yields, was the most important element of Native American subsistence. AT times, this decision not to stockpile food could hurt them, even if it contributed to the long-term ecological balance.