Inputs and Outputs

I make the trip down to Lexington for a few days every week to work my other job at Peet's Coffee and Tea. Most of the time, my farming life and my barista life don't have a lot to do with each other, besides the occasional discussion about the farm with a curious customer, or my habit of recycling coffee shipping boxes for ground covers. But because of Earth Day, my shift last Thursday was a bit different.

On Thursday afternoon, a number of customers came into the shop looking for environmentally friendly coffee beans. I was thrilled to discuss with them the value of direct relationships with farmers, and in one case, the discussion turned away from coffee towards sustainable living in general. Later, after we closed for the evening, I talked for a little while with one of my coworkers about the farm and what makes for a sustainable lifestyle. When I left that night, I was reflecting on how nice it was to have discussions like that in order to make sense of the choices I've made for the sake of sustainability, as well as to help others find sustainable options for their own lives.

It turns out that both in broad discussions of sustainable lifestyle choices as well as trying to pick a coffee bean with good eco-cred, the guiding principle is the same: be aware of all inputs and outputs. This sounds so simple but it's not: you might know you are bringing coffee into your house, but where did that coffee come from, and where is the money you spent on it going? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you to avoid buying a product that was grown in a manner harmful to the well being of the land and the farmer who produced it.

In the case of our farm, being aware of the inputs and outputs is essential, and also deceptively difficult. I'm discovering that there are several currencies a farmer trades in on a day to day basis: Dollars, calories, nutrients, and karma to name a few. Managing inputs and outputs in all of these currencies, as well as conversion between them promises to be a path to a high level of sustainability, but only if done carefully and correctly. If we're careless, a lot of wealth could be squandered.

With that risk in mind, we're going to do our best to make good, informed choices about our inputs and outputs, with the understanding that there might be mistakes here and there. And hopefully some of our outputs come harvest time will make for good (and tasty) inputs somewhere else.

-Dan