Joshua M Wilcox
Salvation Farms
Press Release
9-15-06

Right now, if you see it or not, we as a society are teetering on a threshold. Soon we will have no chance to change our positioning, and natural forces have the potential to make life a lot harder. The longer I have spent studying the impacts of society, the more I realize that we have created a highly inefficient paradigm in more ways than just one. Right now, as a college student, I am trying to change what I consider inefficient use of resources.

Currently, my Senior Applied Research Project (SARP) for Sterling College is to work with a variety of non-profits and other organizations in the local area. Many of these hope to move to a more efficient use of goods, resources, and energy. Now I can understand if you gotten confused at what I am trying to accomplish, so let me paint you a picture.

In our current place as men and women we rely heavily on many produced resources. There I have broken into subgroups: Electrical “Power,” Thermal “Heating,” Agricultural “Food and Goods,” and Transportation “Moving and Driving.” Now all of these subgroups really generate a lot of waste that could be greatly reduced, typically resulting in a cost savings to the consumer. So then the next question from here is, “How can I as a person help in the reduction?”

Well, like many people that I know, the start of my quest began this summer working with Salvation Farms. This organization, started by some very bright women, takes quality fresh, organic produce that can’t be sold right out of the field, and donates it to those in need. We are talking about thousands of pounds of goods being harvested every summer, which would have just sat in the field and rotted back into the soil. Like all good deeds they lead to many others, and now I am volunteering a third of my time away on such noble quests.

Overall, most of my volunteer efforts seem to revolve around answering two key questions which our society seems to skip past. “How many resources are being used and which process is most efficient?” You see, with a capitalistic society, the bottom line is the only key driving force. Economics are the dominating mathematical theorem. For Salvation Farms, I am somewhat answering my key questions in reverse.

My question changes to, “How much energy would be used if these donated goods were sourced through a commercial distributor?” Doing such research not only provides educational material for the end consumer, but qualifies the importance of such programs in terms of comparative energy savings. When broken down even further, it imparts the total CO2 emission savings. Thus, the ultimate truth is answered – the start to changing what we now know as western society.