The level of consumption that we identify with success is utterly unsustainable. We're gobbling up the world.
Interpretation
Success should not be defined by excessive consumption, which harms the planet.
In this quote, John Robbins highlights the dangerous relationship between societal definitions of success and unsustainable consumption patterns. He argues that the relentless pursuit of material wealth leads to the depletion of natural resources, suggesting that rethinking our values is essential for environmental sustainability and true success.
In practice
In a speech about climate change, it is important to emphasize how our definition of success impacts the environment.
Our food chain is in crisis. Big agribusiness has made profits more important than your health—more important than the environment—more important than your right to know how your food is produced. But beneath the surface, a revolution is growing.
Awareness is bad for the meat business. Conscience is bad for the meat business. Sensitivity to life is bad for the meat business. DENIAL, however, the meat business finds indispensable.
I believe that eating simple food in a healthy body with a clean conscience is more pleasurable, and infinitely more satisfying, then eating decadent food that makes you and your world ill.
The joy is that we can take back our bodies, reclaim our health, and restore ourselves to balance. We can take power over what and how we eat. We can rejuvenate and recharge ourselves, bringing healing to the wounds we carry inside us, and bringing to fuller life the wonderful person that each of us can be.
Every time you make a choice that expresses respect for life, you bring a little more love in your body, into your family, into our society, and into a world that is calling out for this blessing.
A reduction in meat consumption is the most powerful single act that you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources.
Agricultural sustainability doesn't depend on agritechnology. To believe it does is to put the emphasis on the wrong bit of 'agriculture.' What sustainability depends on isn't agri- so much as culture.
If we grew our own food, we wouldn't waste a third of it as we do today. If we made our own tables and chairs, we wouldn't throw them out the moment we changed the interior decor. If we had to clean our own drinking water, we probably wouldn't contaminate it.
Soil mapping is one of the pillars to the challenge of sustainable development
If we want to move towards a low-polluting, sustainable society, we need to get consumers to think about their purchases.
Looking at the world through a sustainability lens not only helps us 'future proof' our supply chain, it also fuels innovation and drives brand growth.
If we achieve our sustainability targets and no one else follows, we will have failed.
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