Embracing the Complexity

     There are an infinite number of topics that are worthy of reflection given the amount of activities the Summer Alternative Breaks-Boston participated in during our trip.  However, I would like to reflect on an overarching theme that I felt permeated each of our activities: how to embrace complexity.  This is a state of being that you must enter into when dealing with complex topics, like food security or labeling food as organic.  How do you as a person allow two dissonant perspectives to be held at the same time?  This is the heart of the embrace.

     Let us consider one of the activities that our SAB group participated in: a tour of dairy farm that included a mechanical milking system.  In this system, microchipped cows have been trained by a food reward system to enter willing into a stall to be milked by a machine that also captures output, health, and wellness information of the animal.  This system is revolutionary as it allows the farmer to see a big picture of his/her production capacity and to make corrections as need to improve efficiency.   Ultimately, these efficiencies can translate into savings in transportation and packaging costs, which may ultimately leader to better consumer prices.  This is certainly a good thing!

     However, we also learned on our tour how the animals are specially bred and trained to be more effective in this system.  Cows receive a treat each time they are milked by the machine to ensure they return to the machine again in the future.  Mothers are separated from their babies early on to ensure their milk is not consumed by the young cows.  The animals are fed specialty food to ensure optimal nutrition for improved milk production.  Each of these aspects guarantees that the animal is an effective and efficient milk production instrument, perhaps at the risk of more humane or natural activities that a cow would participate in.  This is not a good thing.

     So what is to be done?  Should we eliminate technological advances in order to promote animal well-being OR should we embrace the human oriented benefits of technological efficiencies over the possible detrimental effects on the animal?  Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the middle, in a place that is complex, difficult to navigate, and with no one-size-fits-all solution.

     This example is just one illustration of the efforts made on the trip to expose the participants to multifaceted topics in which a single solution may not be readily apparent. Every evening, our group would participate in a team reflection in order to process our thoughts and impressions from the day. Many of these reflections captured the difficulty of finding one solution to an issue being presented.  And what great practice for real life!  How often are we presented with a situation in which a single solution is readily available?  Not often.  More likely, we have to muddle our way through using the best information we have at a time with the understanding that we may change our perspective once more information is known. 

     So for the future, when faced with a difficult situation, avoid trying to come to an immediate conclusion. Seeking clarity over intricacy may eliminate some of the details that you need to explore. Embrace the complexity.

- Stephanie Dolamore, Staff Advisor