Sustainabilty-what is it really?

We attended a lively party-meeting in the Squirrel Hill part of Pittsburgh the other afternoon/evening called a Sustainability Salon, and the topic was, for this particular Salon, food.
So you can imagine our excitement when we were invited by the owner of the home, Maren, to come to this gathering of Pittsburghian souls. There were farmers and consumers alike, and many familiar faces. We heard a good many speakers talk about organic farming, localization, farmer's markets, and permaculture. One guy even talked about his garlic farm. The last speaker we stayed for was, you can guess it...a cattle and pig farmer. He talked about his practices, and how he develops relationships with his animals. He spoke about them with love, and compassion. But one thing we noticed was that he never once used the accurate word to describe what he does with them before they are dead bodies, shipped off to markets and stores around the area. He used the word "processed"...um, excuse me? Did you forget to mention that you murder them?
Hm. The word sustainable does not accurately describe the production of meat from animals because a cow eats about 70 pounds of grass per day, and the man who was speaking said they aim for 80 % devastation of the particular pasture that he allows the cows to be in that particular day. I think we just need to re-evaluate what sustainability truly means, and of course this is an open-ended idea, because it means something different for everyone, since it is a value that we develop within ourselves.

At the gathering, we felt a strain because there was such a tight schedule of speakers that there really was no free time to share ideas and have open ended discussions with the 60 + people that were there. It was speakers talking to an audience, and it felt like we again were in the role of the consumer.
In this cycle of supply and demand, the consumer is always at the mercy of the supplier. This is not what sustainability looks like..and what we need to do is break free once and for all from this system. We need to start teaching each other the practices we are applying and know will work for others. Because it's not about simply profiting for your own family, it is about creating long-lasting changes for a community, changes that eventually branch off and touch the entire world. It's all pretty on the surface to pretend like we are doing something but when you get together with people, you need to have open-ended conversation and a relaxed environment so people can use their imaginations and truly make things happen.