In the second installment of Sustainability Spectrum, we hear from Paul David Terry, a musician and teacher living in San Diego.

Paul David Terry is a musician based out of San Diego.  He performs with the San Diego opera, and is the director of the UC San Diego Pepband.  At his home in Hillcrest he grows tomatoes, eggplants, basil, habanero peppers, chocolate mint, beans and “lots of flowers.”

Paul’s shopping list tends to look like this:
1.    Fancy cheeses
2.    All natural cleaners
3.    Non-organic milk
4.    Purple cabbage
5.    Chicken

“I like to reduce the artificial chemicals in my life,” he says about why he tries to buy green cleaning products, but organic is not high on his list of priorities.  “I don’t look for products just because they’re organic.  That’s the last thing I look for, just because the term is so broad based,” he says.  He buys organic not for the principle, but for his own personal health – it’s better on his allergies and the food from his CSA box just tastes better. 

For Paul, it’s not necessarily about the theory behind organics as much as it is about the pragmatic, personal benefits.  “It seems to me,” he says, “that when you’re not concerned with sustainability you’re getting into habits that are easier but in the long run are going to catch up with you and damage you.”  And it’s not just about environmental sustainability either; Paul makes a point to include personal financial sustainability into his description of a sustainable world.  “It’s about doing things that can reduce carbon footprint and seeing how that fits with reducing your financial burden.”  To cut down on gas costs (and emissions) he took the shuttle or carpooled from Hillcrest to the UC San Diego campus.

Still, Paul is a sucker for fancy/chic foods (and he makes a mean sangria).  He buys meats and cheese imported from other states and often laden with hormones.  “I do worry about the meat and cheese,” he says “and I buy it without hormones if it’s on sale, but I also realize it’s a lot of work to eliminate every foreign entity, so I try to reduce what I feel comfortable with.”  He also takes long showers, even though he described water as the number one current sustainability issue.

“I try to do as much as I can,” he says.  “I know I can correct a lot of things and improve them, and I feel that in time I could really eliminate a lot of factors.  I think if I worry or feel guilty for not reducing all together, those are stressors that don’t help at all.”

Related:  sustainability spectrum part 1