In a slap to avocado-munching environmentalists worldwide, a new study published in Nature reports an inconvenient truth:
Organic farming is worse for the environment.
Yes, organic practices reduce climate pollution caused directly by farming.
But they also reduce crop yields.
Which means more land has to be used to feed all the hungry mouths out there… which means more forests have to be cleared… which releases more carbon into the atmosphere… which is bad, bad news for those cliff-climbing walruses in the Arctic.
So will Greta Thunberg and her ilk finally start lobbying for heavier pesticide use?
Will they up their ingestion of GMOs to fight climate change?
Just my guess… but I think it’s unlikely.
I’m sure Greta will find a way to save the world, and all the people in it…
While still being strict and saintly about the food she puts into her own body.
In other words, she will continue to move toward her goal, while still staying true to her basic principles.
If that’s what she does, then good on ‘er.
I mean, I’m personally very callous about climate change. And I prefer my food as inorganic as can be. So it’s not like I’m personally invested in the outcome of resolving climate change while keeping our veggies and fruits “crunchy.”
I just feel that the basic recipe — keep moving forward, adjust when you realize you’re slightly off course — is the core of success in any field.
And you don’t have to take my word for it. Maxwell Maltz, who wrote the super influential self-help tome Psycho-Cybernetics, preached something similar:
“Your brain and nervous system constitute a goal-striving mechanism that operates automatically to achieve a certain goal, very much as a self-aiming torpedo or missile seeks out its target and steers its way to it. […] The torpedo accomplishes its goal by going forward, making errors, and continually correcting them. By a series of zigzags, it literally ‘gropes’ its way to the goal.”
Conclusion?
1. Have a clearly defined goal
2. Grope towards it
3. Allow your brain to correct course as needed
Simple? Yes.
But also your best bet for eventually getting to where you want to go — even if that goal is uncertain, complex, and has never been achieved before.