Defining ourselves, ourselves

(Disclaimer: I am just using high fructose corn syrup as an example in this post.)

Did you know that the corn industry is trying to rebrand high-fructose corn syrup as corn sugar? Nutritionally, HFCS may not be too different from sugar, but environmentally, it may be.

It is easy to find comfort in the branding and marketing ploys of today. We don't necessarily have to think for ourselves. Someone else can define what is good for me, my family, and my community. Someone else can make the tough decisions of what ingredients to include in our foods, soaps, toothpastes and lives. These outsiders make it seem that if I don't own what it is they want me to own, I am just not a cool person. I mean, going for a jog without an iPod? Lame.

It is much more difficult to be vigilant and aware and conscious and present. If we are not, we can be fooled into thinking that corn sugar is something completely different than what it is, or used to be called. We can be fooled into buying a product that caused significant environmental harm in its production, and trash that will not go away. We cannot be fooled by companies, like Coca Cola, that use this product to tell us to be conscious of our environment. It is important to realise that outsiders and people in boardrooms cannot understand the issues around Midland, MI, and they shouldn't be allowed to define the outcomes of our lives.

Private choices

"However destructive may be the policies of the government and the methods and products of the corporations, the root of the problem is always to be found in private life. We must learn to see that every problem that concerns us as conservationists always leads straight to the question of how we live." Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community - Wendell Berry

Jennifer sent me this link about how Coca-Cola is encouraging the people of the world to be more conscious, environmentally-friendly, and to be better citizens. It is incredible how a company that has been accused of polluting waters and wreaking havoc on ground water supplies all around the world can encourage us to continue to to buy their product, and at the same time make us feel good about ourselves. We are devoted, committed and loyal to companies and corporations that produce brands and products that have no empathy, sympathy, and concern for anything other than their own profit. Left in their path are destroyed land, water, air and communities. How are we to fight back? More importantly, how are we to live true to our ethics and philosophies as conservationists? It absolutely comes down to private choices in our daily lives that can have influences on those people around us. What we must come to terms with is the fact that we must change our conceptions of what is good for us, what we need to live, and what we need to be responsible citizens in our communities. We cannot continue to let entities like Coca-Cola define what is good for the world, and what we need to be doing to make our impacts on the environment less harmful. Take a stand, and make the hard private choices.