{"id":281,"date":"2017-07-06T12:18:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T12:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/?p=281"},"modified":"2017-07-06T12:18:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T12:18:10","slug":"does-voting-with-our-dollar-really-make-a-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/does-voting-with-our-dollar-really-make-a-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Does &#8220;Voting with Our Dollar&#8221; Really Make a Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Both Michael Maniates\u2019s \u201cIndividualization: Plant a Tree, Ride a Bike, Save the World?\u201d and the book from our previous lesson, Michael Pollan\u2019s <em>In Defense of Food<\/em> grapple with issues covered in systems theory- albeit in very different ways. Pollan\u2019s book dismantles the reductionist theories that are ever-so-present in \u201cnutritionism,\u201d saying that foods are more than a sum of their vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients. In this way, he incorporates systems theory with regards to biological processes. Yet, Pollan still espouses the type of individualistic behavior that Maniates rebuffs with regards to how to confront the industrialized food system; he recommends buying organic produce, not buying packaged food, and going to the farmer\u2019s market or even planting one\u2019s own food when possible. He doesn\u2019t take on the industrialized food system itself, as Maniates would suggest doing.<\/p>\n<p>Maniates is critical of the individualization emphasized in the environmental movement, which focuses more on consumers \u201cvoting with their dollar\u201d to buy ecological products and individual efforts such as recycling over changing government and industrial policies. Maniates\u2019s stance is something that I really resonated with and was shocked to find someone who agreed with me. I am all for helping the environment but believe that larger systems and policies need to change to make it easier for us all to act more environmentally friendly. For instance, instead of everyone buying hybrid cars or even riding their bikes more often, I think that more public transportation systems run on renewable energies need to be constructed. Rather than focusing on individual blame and guilt, broader, system-level actions are needed to enact real change.<\/p>\n<p>I think that both works can be of much use to us. I found\u00a0<em>In Defense of Food<\/em> to be quite illuminating and an important read for anyone who eats (i.e. everyone). Whether or not we really can &#8220;vote with our dollar,&#8221; maintaining our individual health is still obviously an important endeavour. Maniates&#8217;s piece can take our thinking further beyond our wallet and into grander ways in which, collectively as a society, we can try to enact change without shaming each other for habits like not recycling.<\/p>\n<p>Works Cited:<\/p>\n<p>Maniates, Michael. &#8220;Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pollan, Michael.\u00a0<em>In Defense of Food.\u00a0<\/em>Penguin Books, 2009.\u00a0<em>Global Environmental Politics<\/em>, vol. 1, no. 3, 2001, pp. 31-52.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both Michael Maniates\u2019s \u201cIndividualization: Plant a Tree, Ride a Bike, Save the World?\u201d and the book from our previous lesson, Michael Pollan\u2019s In Defense of Food grapple with issues covered in systems theory- albeit in very different ways. Pollan\u2019s book dismantles the reductionist theories that are ever-so-present in \u201cnutritionism,\u201d saying that foods are more than a sum of their vitamins,&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/does-voting-with-our-dollar-really-make-a-difference\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-movements","category-public-health","tag-industrial-food-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}