Reaction to Wendell Berry’s Out of Your Car, Off Your Horse Essay

While Wendell Berrys essay is certainly thought-provoking, it was to a certain floor frustrating to read for me because I perceived it as a perfect example of good environmentalist intentions and a legitimate desire of finding alternatives to our unsustainable ashes which ultimately lead to an oversimplified and irrational utopian vision to be realized by pursuing just one path which shows esoteric traits.Berrys idol is localism.Surely, local economic structures are vital to environmentalist efforts if they in truth help to reduce for example the Carbon footprint because fuel for transportation is saved. On the other hand, if consequently carried out, this strategy will backfire. Local farming will be more diverse but it certainly wont be more productive. In a free, global market, farmers, if they have access to the necessary knowledge and equipment, will grow the food that is best suited to their soil and climate, thereby maximizing productivity and getting out more food on less s pace for less energy.This effect can and often does weigh heavier than unequal transportation, especially if this transportation is also carried out only on a down in the mouth scale, leading to many small trucks delivering small amounts of food to countless small organic shops which do a good job on selling an ecologically peaceful mind but very poorly on actually saving the environment. Large scales might not fit to our romantic social ideals but more often than not, they are ecologically efficient More importantly, the unbelief What will this do to our community is not the only important one.If this were true, then some people in Northern Siberia should probably start burning their fossil fuels like crazy. After all, they are often available in their neighborhood and global warming would certainly benefit their agricultural returns while their colleagues a some hundred miles South will suffer from extreme dearth. No, mutual dependency and its consequence, thinking globally, are a huge step forward, if it is flanked by serious good will of local concerns.