How to start decentralizing your life
Happy Sunday, Soothers. I have another milestone to mark: This past Monday I ate what I believe is the first meal I have ever eaten that was 100% food that was grown on the same land where I live (well, 3 miles up the road), cultivated and raised by people I actually know.
(The evening before I also roasted a chicken that they raised and processed, and realized the neck was still on... a new adventure for me to learn to get that off. We're learning all the time! 😬)
It wasn't anything fancy — a breakfast bowl I made with sausage, kale, zucchini, eggs and beans (and yes, I got the beans from them too) — but it sure felt momentous.
The model of the farmers I'm buying from is really inspirational. It's a married couple up the road, Rob and Mo Moutoux, who are about my age. Rob came from a family of farmers and growers, and they've been farming on this land and running their CSA since 2005. It's not your typical CSA where you get a box every week — instead, they set up sort of an open-air grocery store each week in their barn, and you go in and pick what you want from what's available. It shakes out to about $80 a week per person. (I have a lot to say about the model of trust and abundance from which they're operating, too — they trust that people will take what they need and not hoard the food or take more than they've technically paid for. It reminds me of some of the tenets I'm always striving for that I wrote about last year in this essay, Never Taking More Than Half.)
How have I gone 44 years and never known the people who grew my food?
How have I gone 44 years and have had probably under, like, 5 percent of my food be raised locally?
How have I gone 44 years and never once had to interact with a bit of what it means to actually eat animal products (aka, chopping the neck off a chicken) in a semi-meaningful, hands on way?
I've been reading a lot about the dangers of a centralized food system, meaning that it's run by a handful of multinational corporations that have power on pretty much every aspect of production. Often, these corporations do not work in the best interests of consumers and society, but are solely profit driven.
For example, large meat-packing companies control 85 percent of the beef market. In poultry, the top four processing firms control 54 percent of the market. And in pork, the top four processing firms control about 70 percent of the market. I couldn't find the rates on produce or dried goods but I'm sure they must be somewhat similar.
COVID and lockdown showed us the vulnerabilities of this centralized food system and their supply chains, but many of the issues were around long before. If food becomes profit driven, producing the largest quantity for the lowest cost to increase profits, that's where industrial issues start to come in and affect the quality of the food. Most of us probably know by now the issues of demineralized soil and how that affects the nutrients of our food, not to mention the dangers of exploitative labor issues, how factory farming creates awful, cruel conditions for animals, environmental degradation of land, and pesticide use in factory and industrial farming and how we're beginning to realize the effects of that in human health.
Reflecting on my choice to enter this CSA and essentially move more towards a decentralized food system — where the majority of my food comes from a hyperlocal farm so close to where I actually live — it got me thinking about decentralization of our lives generally as a tenet, overall. I mean, not that this is a new thinking for me. I would say one of the themes of my thinking over the past few years is "How can we go small." I've written about that in these following essays:
And continuing in that thread, what does it actually look like to meaningfully decentralize our lives?
Essentially, living under centralized systems means that a small amount of people in a hub are making decisions and systems for a larger group of people. In more decentralized systems, the power of everything is distributed across small groups, and, I would add, more about being hyper-local.
So what can that look like in a regular old life?
Of course, one place to start is where I am, which is making as much of your food locally purchased as possible. (Or even growing some of it!!!) It doesn't have to be all or nothing, either. For years I would go to a local farmers market and buy one carton of eggs and one vegetable, and would use those throughout the week. I would grow one tomato plant. I wasn't even close to every single meal being grown and raised by somebody I knew; most of my food still came from standard grocery stores. But I was willing to start small.
Another place to look at is how many people who live close to you, do you know? Do you know your neighbors? You don't need to be their BFFs, but do you have relationships where you at least know each other's names, perhaps cultivate the ability to borrow the proverbial cup of sugar?
What about fast fashion? Do you know the people who make your clothes? Can you purchase one piece of clothing that was made locally, from local fibers and materials?
As for healthcare, can you engage with a local healthcare provider — an herbalist, body worker, energy worker, acupuncturist?
In terms of vacationing, have you seen the options of local state parks around you, or places within a day's travel that you could visit and get to know?
A journal prompt to start with two is to write two rows on a piece of paper. Title one row "Centralized" and the other "Decentralized" and see what pillars of your life, or items or structures in your life fall under either. There's not like, an absolutely comprehensive list of what the pillars of a life are, but you could start with these: 1. Financial (where do you bank or have retirement accounts) 2. Physical health (where do you get your movement, exercise, or go to the gym) 3. Emotional (who are your relationships with, who do you get your emotional care and support from) 4. Spirituality (where is your church, community or spiritual leaders located) 5. Work (who do you work for, is it a centralized or decentralized organization, or somewhere in between) 6. Food (the questions most of this essay posits) 7. General shopping/purchasing (clothes, household items, etc)
It's not about shaming ourselves — by design probably 99% of systems and parts of our lives will fall under Centralized. But then you could start small by picking just one area that you want to commit to moving from under Centralized to the Decentralized row, little by little, over time.
Of course, beginning to do this requires a few things: Privilege. Money. Time.
But what I think it requires most of all that we're not willing to put in is creativity, and a true desire to reclaim personal agency in our lives. Because it's easy to just do what's presented, and it's easy to outsource our decision-making.
Is it less convenient for me to be able to cook and make only what's locally in season and drive out every Friday to the CSA farm? Than to go to the local grocery store (actually, though, the grocery store is way less physically convenient, and a lot less pleasant) and buy whatever I want on whatever whim I have?
Yes, of course.
But convenience isn't the point of my life anymore.
It's choice.
Do I have to spend time and dig deep in my creative well to figure out how to move away from fast fashion or household goods and tailor my wardrobe, to shrink it essentially, so I can still wear clothes that feel good and dress creatively, without just clicking buy on whatever I want online?
Do I have to cultivate patience to wait and find at local thrift stores the perfect piece of art for my living room?
Yes, but now I relish this time and creativity as an inspiration challenge, instead of an annoyance or an exhaustion.
I think one of the most important things we can cultivate for those of us who want to move from a life of centralization into a life with just a bit more decentralization is the mindset that to do this is a creative joy.
An inspirational privilege.
A way to expand our minds, our hearts, our worldviews.
It's not just another dreary "should do" on our way to try to be a more ethical person, another checkbox on a list we're trying to race through so we can evade the shame we might feel for (having to, inevitably) participate in capitalism.
Have FUN with decentralizing your life.
Take joy in the creative and small ways in which you can begin to do this.
Find adventure in these explorations, because the ways to do this — they're out there.
And we need more people to start doing it, now. While I do believe these shifts can be fun, creative, adventurous, I do believe it is also urgent that we start as soon as we can.
Go small. Go decentralized. And start reclaiming agency, and just a bit of magic, back in your life while you're at it.