By: Elizabeth Pandolfi

Elizabeth Pandolfi — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:48:51 +0000

An excellent point. I myself have only ever made ice cream once, in elementary school, which is also the only time I’ve ever milked a cow! Your focus on small alternatives is, I believe and hope, becoming more mainstream once again as we as a people realize that we simply cannot continue using up our natural resources the way we currently do, if we want to survive. You may already know about this, but the I’On Group’s newest neighborhood, Mixson, is a foray into the smaller, greener living that you speak of. We hope it will help move us all towards more responsible lifestyles, with a greater appreciation for what we have, and a greater ability to see what we don’t need.

By: walterrhett

walterrhett — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:16:20 +0000

Your passion for the complete integration of “green” processes at every stage of the manufacturing of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is well placed and reminds everyone how really important “green” is to out health and the earth. But your detailed examples “beg a question,” and also highlights a B-I-G gen”erational divide. In my lifetime, from the cream from my grandfather’s cows (which ate the grass from his fields in Summerville) we sat down in the afternoon, and with ice, sugar, and a handturned ice cream maker, we made ice cream. The family shared in the turning–as it got “stiffer” it was harder to turn. We learned about manufacturing, creating a product everyone enjoyed. We learned about team work. We learned about common experiences and memories. We appreciated our cows (which we also milked). We honored the land that provided the grass. And we shared the results of our own hands. In other words, “green” can be small, done at home, rekindle family/community life, become a shared memory that connects people, land, and a celebration of living. It can teach children good work ethnics, “green” can reach across generations. So while I like the corporate focus and the need to keep them on their toes, I do recall a sensible small alternative, that requires only a little time and effort, but yields something closer to the heart than just the taste–or analysis–of ice cream. If you don’t have a cow, select organic cream, and purchase a hand-turned churn. Then you set your own standards of green, control the “production” process, and gather control of life back into your own hands. The time researching corporate green can be used to easily return to learning to live by your own hands. That discovery really is deeply satisfying. Invite me to the first ice cream making party!

Comments on: One more reason (as if we needed one!) to love Ben and Jerry’s

By: Elizabeth Pandolfi

By: walterrhett