Tragedy of the Commons

"The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Last weekend I volunteered with a local organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing local farmland (and opposed to paving it over, obviously). I support, with little reservation, the efforts of this organization. But it absolutely pained me to participate in the land clearing process required to create usable farmland on a former tree farm which was donated to the city. It is a complicated situation where my gut reaction was perhaps not the best indicator of what to do.

Bainbridge Island, like many places in the USA, does not have enough farmland to generate the bulk of its own food. Most food travels hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles to reach our dinner tables. So it is a tricky question to ask: Is it worth it? Should we bother trying to make our own food? Does the reduction in pollution caused by growing, transporting and storing imported food make it worthwhile to clear a little tree-farm forest on the island? Among the hundreds of factors to consider are, how much can this land produce in any given season? Will the crop cover provide much air filtration? Soil stability? How will agriculture change the soil chemistry? What are the impacts on local wildlife?

Additionally, if this organization wasn't fighting to preserve farmland, some of the properties they maintain could very well have been developed, turned into residential lots, or otherwise paved over. Without public organizations and nonprofits fighting constantly to preserve open space on highly desired land, we will lose it to a developer waiting in the wings to pour some cement.

My recommendation is to volunteer locally (while you're trying to eat locally) and gain some awareness of what your community is doing to further the cause of sustainability. It's not a cut and dry issue, and the effort is worth a deeper base of knowledge. Learning about the sometimes paradoxical ways to promote sustainability definitely caused me to think twice about my own preconceptions. Intentionality is not simply "doing the right thing"; it's realizing that the "right thing" goes a little deeper than the first thing that feels good.