While we were unable to complete our original project plan, I am still very pleased with how our new plan played out. Not only did Grace and I learn a lot from this experience, I feel that our participants benefited greatly from our discussions and from their personal reflections on consumptions choices. WHo We talked toGrace and I ended up reaching out to a few of our professors who have expertise in this area. We engaged in dialogue with Jay Odenbaugh, an associate professor of Philosophy at Lewis & Clark College. His research focuses on foundational issues related to the sciences, specifically in ecology and evolutionary biology. We also reached out to Bob Goldman, a sociology professor who taught our course on the political economy of food. His research focuses on the evolution political economy of commodity signs, and advertising as a vehicle for measuring changes of sign value. In "The Political Economy of Food", we explored food as a nexus between society, culture, and political economy.
What did they say?"We don't vote to make change, we vote because of what it expresses" -Jay OdenbaughWe engaged in dialogue with Jay about why people make the consumption decisions they do. For example, we talked about the rise of food trends such as vegetarianism. Is vegetarianism about ethics? Is it about style? Because it is a sacrificial act, it is often viewed as a very symbolic action. He made a comparison that Grace and I have found to be very central to this topic. Jay made the point that people don't vote because it will turn the election, they vote because of what is expresses. Individual actions work in the same way: someone doesn't bring a reusable bag to the grocery store because it is going to save the world, they do it because of what it symbolizes. "are you asking if my consumption decisions are making a difference for me or for the world?" -Bob GoldmanBob has done extensive research on the connections between food and people. He highlighted the problematic nature of the phrase, "It is through my consumption that I will change the world." This idea is indicative of the hegemony in market-based solutions. According to Bob, people often draw assumption on limited information and draw pseudo-scientific conclusions which often drive these emerging food trends. In his view, "a lot of people's efforts are an attempt to mediate an antagonistic world." In short, Bob asserts that attempts to create environmental change through individual consumption decisions is necessary, but insufficient. "If people really understood the motivation behind their choices, would they still make them?" -robin TeaterI have participated in two Healthy Democracy workshops with Robin during my time in the Lewis & Clark Environmental Studies program. A concept that Robin heavily focuses on in her workshops is "identity-protective cognition," which refers to the tendency for individuals to selectively belief or dismiss information based on their predominate underlying beliefs. We found that this idea is heavily interwoven with individual conception decisions, likely because food is heavily connected to personal identity. COnsumer SurveyIn addition to our engagement with experts and educators, Grace and I wanted to reach out to a wide variety of consumers to weigh in their opinions on these issues. Incorporating some ideas provided by Jay, we developed a survey that asked participants to rank and assess several grocery stores and explain their reasoning, articulate the important factors that influence their consumption decisions (factors include cost, selection, accessibility, perceived environmental impact, nutritional value, etc...), and to share their opinions on the efficacy of individual and collective action.
Reflection on the Festival Of ScholarsLewis & Clark hosts an annual event titled the Festival of Scholars, where students from all disciplines come together to share the outcomes of their hard work. Grace and I presented our poster during the poster celebration, along side many of our peers from Environmental Engagement and various other students from different departments. During our poster session, I was able to view some projects from the Biology and Chemistry departments. The majority of the projects I saw were based solely on empirical research. I really appreciated having the opportunity to see what sorts of projects people in other departments are working on, as I often feel stuck in my ENVS and SOAN bubbles.
I also find it interesting for ENVS students to share our projects with people from other departments. People are often stuck in the mindset that ENVS is centered solely on empirical research like the other hard sciences. They often seem confused as to how the work that we do in a class like Environmental Engagement has to do with "the environment". It was fun to try and pull people out of that mindset by explaining how the work we do is extremely relevant to Environmental Studies. It's very encouraging to see people getting excited by the work that we do in ENVS.
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