[SustainableTompkins] maintaining list integrity

[Allison L H Jack]

Hi everyone,

I agree with Dan and Karl on this one. Karl's post reminded me of the most 
formative moment in my 'activist' life. I was 18 and attending an Earth 
First rally in Humboldt County. I saw Judi Bari speak, and then one brave 
logger addressed the crowd about how important it was that we all work 
together because a sustainable logging system means long term job 
sustainability for local communities. After the rally a whole group of us 
got egged by locals driving by in a truck and yelling obscenities at us. I 
know and respect a lot of people who bury themselves in logging roads and 
tree sit etc., but it's just not for me. I believe conservation must go 
hand in hand with creating stable livelihoods. Any successful movement 
needs to include all stakeholders working together, not just activists 
bussing in from two states away.

When I studied tropical biology in Costa Rica I lived at La Selva field 
station. When the station was founded it was surrounded by virgin forest. 
Now 25 or more years later it is a tiny island in a sea of banana 
plantations. They have to patrol the perimeter of the research site with 
armed guards to keep out hunters...who of course are local people who used 
to rely on game in the forest to meet their nutritional needs. I was blown 
away by the futility of studying the mating habits of tree frogs in a site 
where you could actually hear the logging trucks downshifting on the nearby 
road. This experience shifted my academic focus from forest ecology to 
agriculture because I felt that humans can't be subtracted from any 
ecological equation.

This is why I feel that the sustainability movement can be so much more 
powerful than the old-school environmental movement. It embraces a wider 
view and draws a wider range of people in.

With that said I don't feel like roommate listings are appropriate for this 
list...use Craig's list! Also, while I feel like activist alerts and letter 
writing campaigns (like the whale one) are important, I see this list as 
carrying out the longer term work of building an informed and active 
community that can address sustainability issues in our daily lives and in 
our region.

-Allison

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Allison L H Jack
Graduate Student
Department of Plant Pathology
Cornell University
335 Plant Science
Ithaca, NY 14850
607.273.5762
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"...Advancing a productive and sustainable agriculture"
from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences mission statement