Sustainability is it Trendy

I heard a women on a TV show a few nights ago say she didn't believe in sustainability as it was trendy.   I don't agree, I will take a moment to express why. 

Trends in my eyes are short lived, lasting a few years at most. Should what we do to save our planet really last only a few days, months, or years?   The government is pushing to have cars made with better fuel efficiency.  Energy efficiency is being enhanced in nearly every electrical, gas, or diesel fuel item manufactured these days.   In my eyes to reduce our dependency on our resources, and to use the resources we have wisely isn't trendy, it is sustainability and should be a way of life for ever.  

Sustainability is using what we have to the best of our ability.  Growing our own food when we are able.  Doing as much as we can to reserve our resources for future generations.  To help get our planet healthy again, or as healthy as we can. 

 When I was a child my parents grew a large garden, each year we canned and preserved all of what we harvested.  My mother made bread every Saturday, I wish you could experience how warm and fuzzy the smell of that was throughout the house. My father had some beef cattle, we had chickens and pigs.  Every fall he would butcher. We had beef, pork, chicken, venison and sometimes moose meat for the winter.  The only food I remember my parent's buying at the store was yeast, flour, sugar, spices, cereal, cocoa, bananas, pears, and peaches.  My mother washed our clothes in a ringer washing machine and hung them out on a line to dry.  The dryer was used in the winter months only, and sometimes not even then.  There was a wood stove that we heated the house with in the winter time.  My mother made our hats and mittens, and many of our clothes. 

I came from a family of 8, my parents and 6 children.  We lived well on very little compared to today's standers.  In a lot of ways sustainability is living the way our parents, and grandparents did.  Many farmers still do live in this manor.  I wouldn't call that trendy but caring on the traditions of what we have learn, and passing it on.  

Those that understand how to grow and preserve what they can for themselves are going to be more likely to overcome adversity.  Those that can adapt to change, not temporarily but permanently are going to persevere.  Have you ever heard on the news how someone died, eating what they grew for themselves organically.

Now were my parents being trendy?  NO as they still grow a garden, buy fruits in season, and can them for when they are not.  They buy their meats now, but compared to the grocery bill of other senior citizens theirs is possible half.  My mother has made mittens for every member of our family. Over the years our family has grown to over 30. 

I moved down to a larger city, and lived on a city lot, off of a busy street.  I panted a garden down there as well.  I had a neighbor complain because one of my pumpkins grew on their side of the fence.  I smoothed it over by telling them to give it a couple weeks then eat it.  I was sighted twice, as a garden doesn't always look lush, at times it may have bare spots.   I moved back to the country, where the cycle of a garden is understood.  It hasn't been a trend for me, I have been trying to continue on with my parent's traditions the majority of my life. 

Ball and Kerr canning jars and supplies have been produced here in the USA for 125 years.  That is a long time for people to be canning their own food.  A long time for people to be doing some of their own sustainability.

Sustainability is it a trend in your eyes?  Is trying to do what you can for yourself, and live as well as you can, on as little as you can a trend?  Is doing what you can to save some of our natural resources for future generations a trend?