 |
| | |
|
|
|
 |
|
COVER STORIES: BACK TO THE LAND...STILL
|
Philip Cook, A61
A maple syrup enterprise provides
an opportunity to explore “eco-efficiencies”
Back to Back
to the Land...Still
When Phil Cook graduated from Tufts in 1961, he began a serendipitous journey
that led to a remote corner of northeastern Minnesota. Today, he and his family
live in a densely wooded “unincorporated area” from which he commutes
to Duluth for his job as senior research chemist at the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). He also taps some 2,400 maple trees on 80 acres, selling nearly
650 gallons annually of Superior Highland Sugarbush Maple Syrup. He admits that
syrup season consumes a lot of his vacation time and “just about breaks
even on costs,” but the hard work is worth it. “It’s like a
religion,” he says.
Through this humble endeavor, he’s also learned a lot about the economics
of sustainability. In the business world, sustainability is about eco-efficiencies:
doing more with less, reducing waste, finding “green” solutions with
no or little environmental impact. “One of the reasons I took up sugaring
was that it became increasingly important for me to understand the economics
of small businesses,” he says. “I wanted to appreciate their struggle.” On
a larger level, he’s also troubled by an American economy that wrestles
with a dependence on fossil fuel. “I am interested in finding out what
is truly sustainable—how we can create a different economy based on realistic
use of resources,” says Cook, whose home is heated by wood from his property
and electric powered by solar energy. “This is the most supreme problem
we have today. But I’m optimistic that we have the human capability to
collectively start moving toward new plans before we hit a crisis we can’t
overcome.”
Still, he watches with growing concern as development pressures threaten to cut
up much of nearby remote areas into ten-acre parcels for recreation homes. “I’ve
been lucky,” he says. “My life here has become a harmonious integration
of family, profession, and nature. But I want future generations to continue
to enjoy what we have today. If that is to happen, we must recognize that the
use of the non-renewable resources of this planet require sustainable intelligence.
Hopefully that intelligence will also include an everlasting appreciation of
the natural world as best we can preserve it.” |
|
|
|
|
|
|
