Sunset

Consumption

Today's powerpoint file

Examples of success: decline in veal consumption, people choosing to live simply


Definitions


Drivers include human desire, marketing, and neoclassical economics


Outcomes include economic growth, distinct social classes, and intergenerational inequity


Potential solutions include a steady-state economy, shifts in subsidies, and myriad individual actions


Examples of consumption


Individual actions


Affecting change


Restructuring the economy


Shifting subsidies


Accelerating change: roles of media, corporations, and NGOs


Thinking globally, acting locally: connecting consumption to production and land-use change


What is produced in this region?


What drives changes in regional land use?




Additional Information:

Cohen, L. 2003. A Consumers Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Collins, R.M. 2000. More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England.

de Graaf, J. Wann, D., and Naylor, T.H. 2001. Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.

De Zengotita, T. 2005. Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way you Live in it. Bloomsbury, New York.

Earth 911.

Ehrenreich, B. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Henry Holt, New York.

Fitzgerald, F.S. 1925. The Great Gatsby. C. Scribner's Sons, New York.

Galbraith, J.K. 1958. The Affluent Society. Houghton Mifflin, New York.

Halweil, B. 2004. Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket. Norton, New York.

Hardin, G. 1993. Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England.

Huffington, A. 2003. Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America. Crown Publishers, New York.

Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Kawachi, I., and Kennedy, B.P. 2002. The Health of Nations: Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health. The New Press, New York.

Korten, D.C. 1999. The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism. Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.

Local Harvest.

Menzel, P. and Mann, C.C. 1994. Material World: A Global Family Portrait. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco.

Monterey Bay Aquarium's ocean-friendly seafood choices.

Myers, N., and Simon, J.L. 1994. Scarcity or Abundance: A Debate on the Environment. W.W. Norton, New York.

Nadeau, R.L. 2003. The Wealth of Nature: How Mainstream Economics Has Failed the Environment. Columbia University Press, New York.

North American Sustainable Consumption Alliance.

Palast, G. 2002. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization, and High-Finance Fraudsters. Pluto Publishing, London.

Rosenblatt, R., editor. 1999. Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

Tucker, R.P. 2000. Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World. University of California Press, Berkeley.

USDA National Organic Program.

Veblen, T. 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. Macmillan, New York.

Wachtel, P.L. 1983. The Poverty of Affluence: A Psychological Portrait of the American Way of Life. Free Press, New York.

Yount, L. 2005. Energy Supply. Facts on File, Inc., New York, New York.