Brazil: Human Rights and Sustainability
My time in Brazil has been difficult to process. While the three weeks I spent there were impactful, it was not in a way that I was expecting. Before leaving I had a vision in my head of returning home as a changed person, intensely influenced and motivated to act in ways I hadn’t before, with my perspective of the world significantly skewed. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel that this opportunity was for naught. I only feel a sense of underwhelm in a program that I felt would have been just as poignant as going to somewhere like Detroit or Milwaukee. Going abroad made it glaringly clear to me that we face issues just as important and pressing as those on other continents, sometimes more so. We see the effects of globalization in developing corners of the world and we panic because we don’t want their culture marred by unnecessary conveniences. Yet, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of healing our own psychology in relation to our overconsumption. How can we expect those who look to us as an example of progress to not want what we have?
In our studies of Human Rights we learned a lot about giving others autonomy in their decisions and solutions to how to make their lives better. However, in one project we were asked to present ideas on how to apply global solutions to agricultural issues. To me this is the antithesis of autonomy, and frankly, I was disappointed as a student studying sustainable agriculture and food systems that broad, one-size-fits all approaches are what the Brazilian professors are exploring. Especially, when days earlier we visited a project that highlighted the great success of small, self-sustaining agriculture.
Ultimately, this is what I have brought back with me: a bit more cynicism, but a renewed zeal in pursuing small and localized techniques when trying to solve our food system issues. At the moment, I am working with a local organic farmer and learning how she balances her integrity and the pressure she experiences to cut corners in order to make her business financially and ecologically successful. Mostly I see a change in my personal ethics. I think as sustainability champions we naturally feel a desire to affect the most change and “save” those around us. But in the months since returning from abroad I’ve felt more of a pull to go within and find the ways in which I can better myself and be a better steward of my environment: mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Between what we learned about the causes of deforestation and seeing the devastation with my own eyes, and then taking an environmental ethics class at the end of the summer break I decided to adopt a vegetarian diet. I’m taking the steps to consume less and to find contentment with what I have. I have decided that activism and an outward struggle with the world is not the route for me, and neither is world travel. My journey includes finding subtle, yet powerful ways to be a quiet example of how sustainable wellbeing can be found in our own backyard.