Michael Thomas Harbuck						Core II Essay
English 1101-SCC							03-10-2007
Dottoressa Hawkins							Sanford, Florida

Observant Producer vs. Insolent Consumer

	The amount of earth under fingernails of individuals will determine the depth of 

enjoyment of daily nourishment.  A future demand for ecological equilibrium 

between the human species and our planet will be best fulfilled by those having 

the skills and character traits of the agricultural producer rather than the 

industrial consumer.  As the population increases, and the requirements of this 

populous mass reaches the proportion of use of natural resources which in turn 

affect a change regarding the relational interaction of humans and their 

environment,  evolutionary intervention will be required.  Therefore, the industrial 

consumer will face the challenge of reinterpreting his role in an ecologically advanced 

society.  Those who produce naturally and those who consume these products are two 

very distinct dimensional frames of reference with different schools of thought and 

observational patterns.  

	The appreciation of nature and the natural world is of great importance

when beginning to describe the difference between those who do have an active 

participation and interaction with the locating, making, and preservation, of the 

basic necessities, and those who are indifferent towards those who feed them to the

point of belligerency towards nature itself.  

Without a general continuous awareness of the fact concerned with what man eats, 

what he drinks, and uses, there can be no basis upon which can be expounded

into fruitful active participation in energy use reduction, general re-use and recycling of 

materials and goods, and finally elimination of wastes  within feasible non exploitive 

boundaries.  The crop farmer, as generally known, has been taught to reuse and 

recycle wastes by returning these to the ground for the good of the land and increased 

productivity, while according to my observation, the urban worker still must be 

reminded to recycle an aluminum soda can.  The cattle farmer is active in the 

production of beef.  The office worker consumes this beef.  Both have an appreciation 

for what has been utilized from nature.  A differentiation is to be seen not in a degree 

of appreciation, but rather within the amount of biologically and ecologically interactive

work and applied ecological reverence. 

 	The trend in the manufacturing world to reduce all production to a single 

source where the individual producer no longer plays a vital role is harming the 

environment by creating more monoculture instead of growth diversity.  Respect for the 

land around us will provide more profit in the form of natural beauty and diversity than 

any overzealous manipulation ever will yield.  The farmer will not cut the stand of trees 

which protects his acreage from wind erosion, yet a consumer readily patronizes the 

farm sized store upon which there had stood a natural habitat for many creatures 

without this fact ever coming to mind.  

Many years in a land where the availability of land is not as prevalent as in the 

United States of America proved to me that not all persons on our planet take the land 

for granted.  Strict laws, the absence of litter and the very air of consideration leads to 

this credible tangible observation.  Every consideration is to be made before destroying, 

changing or threatening any natural habitat around us, for it may never recover from 

man's intrusion.     

	Obvious historically fore coming faults in man such as greed and jealousy play a 

large part in the decisions and conflicts around the world today.  Human acceptance of 

the fact that there is a larger organism than themselves involved in this great planetary 

balance is the final outcome of individual factors.  Ecological interaction, animal 

interaction, and natural observation are all necessary steps on the path the 

realization of this truth.  Being unable to grasp this new ecological dogma will be 

a detriment to many persons and countries as the expected climate change and 

accompanying relationships between differing cultures arise.  The farmer knows 

that he is at the mercy of the weather, wherewith he accepts his part within the 

larger organism.  The consumer becomes angry that the weather does not 

permit the purchase of something absolutely unnecessary for sustaining a life.  

Having personally observed the Masai pastoralists in East Africa, the refined non 

invasive ecological interaction of these peoples with the environment, being the 

reverence and understanding for, as well as the careful observation of the world 

around them, allows them to live without excess consumption.  If all humans 

were endowed with such wisdom the change toward ecological balance would 

not be uncomfortable.    

The laws of science state that energy is either consumed or released in 

the chemical reactions governing matter and the universe.  These same laws 

make known that reactions are also on the whole reversible.  Perhaps the human 

reaction with the Earth has reached the point of reversal where humans will 

release energy into the equation instead of consuming it disproportionably.  The 

experience and the skills necessary for the survival and adaptation within the 

human species will not be able to deny those with agricultural skills and 

experience as well as those with acquired advanced biological interaction skills 

the dominant role in society's development and advanced regression to more 

awareness of human industrial consequences and lower consumption in the 

years to come.