September 10, 2003

Dear Friends of Plenty,

There comes a time when you realize that if you want to change the world, you have to change yourself, if you want justice and fairness you need to try to be just and fair, and if you want peace you have to learn to be peaceful. Early on these precepts were part of our idealistic toolkit, well before Plenty was any more than a distant sparkle in a far off dream. Lately we are seeing that there is a direct line from that realization to a concept that has become central to the work of every organization like Plenty in the world today: sustainable development.

Essentially, "sustainable development" means development that improves people’s lives over the long haul without negatively impacting some other people’s lives or the environment. In recent times the idea of "sustainable" has acquired a new urgency because suddenly we’re talking about the sustainability of life on the planet. For the first time in history we are having to consider whether or not how we live and develop is sustainable for future generations. That can be unsettling to think about. The US, with 5% of the world’s population, is consuming 30% of the world’s resources and that hasn’t changed in the 30 years I’ve been working for Plenty. That’s not sustainable. The recent huge electrical blackout that occurred in the Northeast and Midwest of the US and the push by some to start drilling for oil in fragile ecosystems and build more nuclear power plants are sure signs that our current energy habits, both production and use, are not sustainable. Rising global temperatures, the result of the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (primarily CO2) are contributing to a dramatic reduction in wheat harvests around the world. This is not sustainable.

By the time you read this, the WTO (World Trade Organization) will have met in Cancun, Mexico (Sept. 10-14). The WTO was created in 1995 to promote free trade and adopt rules to enforce free trade practices. It shouldn’t surprise us that, although 146 countries are members, the WTO is mostly controlled by the US, the European Union, Canada and Japan—the richest countries. Why? Well for one thing they can afford to send lots of people to all the meetings. Not on the agenda, but in the back of everyone’s mind will be the fact the top 5% most wealthy people in the world have incomes that are more than 100 times the bottom 5%. The very top 500 richest people have more wealth than the total annual incomes of the poorest half of the world’s people. Rich countries subsidize their farmers to the tune of about $300 billion per year, about six times what they spend on development aid. These conditions are not sustainable. Attendees at the meeting should also be aware that what they pay for a double scoop ice-cream cone is the day’s wage for most of the people working in the hotels and restaurants they will enjoy. Plenty’s message to the WTO is simple: Free trade is not sustainable unless it is fair.

Plenty won’t be represented in Cancun, but two of our Board members will be in Boulder, CO from Oct. 1-4 for a conference called "Sustainable Resources 2003" where representatives of organizations like Plenty will get together to talk about and plan cooperative strategies for making development, and the world, more sustainable and more fair.

Before we ever thought about "sustainability" we were focused on strengthening "local self-sufficiency." After 30 years of working on these problems, we still believe what we learned in Guatemala in the 1970’s: sustainable development begins at home, with the commitment of individuals and families, spreading to villages and communities. Whether we’re talking about health care or energy, local, decentralized self-sufficiency is more sustainable, less vulnerable to the fickle behavior of politics and weather. We keep going around in these circles, which always bring us back home, to ourselves and the sometimes scary, but mostly inspiring realization that everything we care about is, finally, up to each of us.

Sincerely,

Peter Schweitzer
Executive Director