Sustainability is NOT What You Think it is!

What is it, really, and why do you care?  Well, at its core, it is your ability to take care of or “sustain” yourself and your family and is a concept that has been around as long as humans have. The word itself, however, has more recent origins. Coined in German, the original term was Nachhaltigkeit (yikes, this word makes my brain hurt… anyway!), meaning “sustained yield.” It first appeared in a handbook of forestry published in 1713 and was used to mean never harvesting more than the forest can regenerate. The translated term appeared in English beginning in the mid-19th century.

Food and water have to come from somewhere.  Even the earliest cultures would have had to be thinking about what to do in the lean times and what would happen if the animals or plants they depended upon were to disappear.  Before big-box grocery stores and food delivery, households took care of themselves, growing vegetables, keeping chickens and goats and cows, and making their own products like soap and clothing.  In fact, the world we live in now with 2-day delivery and take-out is very, VERY new.

Big events always change us, personally and as a society.  World War II was no exception.  It created a large part of the foundation we are built upon today, especially from a resource and economic standpoint.  Other buzzwords you could use are “consumerism” or “globalization.” Before we talk about the end of the war, we DEFINITELY need to talk about it while it was happening.  While I by no means want to compare the stress of the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic to that of a World War, an insight can be made from an economic and lifestyle aspect.  Like the pandemic (but MUCH more severe), resources were short and communities and families were near-instantly forced to adapt. 

Coming back from the Great Depression before the war, families were getting used to having more; more food options, more stores and shops, more availability.  Production lines were increasing.  Then boom.  All stop.  A world changed in an instant that required “sustaining” for four long years.  Everyone stepped up.  Women and children jumped on the assembly lines and into positions previously held by the men off fighting, neighbors took care of each other, and the country as a whole did what they needed to keep going, giving their soldiers all the support they could.  

As food availability reduced, the United States government created a series of marketing posters to encourage families to grow their own food, calling them “Victory Gardens” or “Food Gardens for Defense.”  Posters showing families working together, shaking the hands of “Uncle Sam” and doing their part to make their food rations go farther, even going as far as to say it will win the war.  This is the same strategy with the “best wings in the world” slogan, but it was needed and worked.  Households sustained themselves as best they could, growing their own gardens and making their own products.