Is environmental awareness encouraging a return to traditional practices? Many of these practices result in products that are more durable, repairable, environmentally friendly and better adapted, as well as offering greater originality and often quality than their industrial equivalents. In some sectors, traditional practices are even becoming more economical, especially when considering energy costs, the full life cycle of products and their overall environmental and health impacts. This renewed interest depends not so much on ideology as on a number of concomitant technological, environmental and social factors.
Traditional practices are generally carried out outside conventional commercial channels, as it is difficult to compete with the productivity associated with industrial organization. Paradoxically, it is precisely this standardized, globalized production that enhances the qualities of traditional practices: producing something yourself or buying a local product brings pleasure and satisfaction that an industrial product bought in a supermarket doesn't offer to the same extent. Often, local products are even more economical, bypassing supermarkets and their middlemen.
Acquired through experience, discussion and observation, traditional knowledge is linked to customs that have endured for centuries or millennia. It evolves slowly. What has changed, however, is the way in which it is passed on: a grandmother can now pass on her knowledge to thousands of others through a well-made video, and answer any questions put to her. Some practices, such as herbalism, construction or food processing, are regulated to limit abuse or risk, but it is still possible to learn and practice them without making a profession of it.
Be that as it may, the increase in productivity brought about by the deployment of artificial intelligence is gradually leading us to consider all our activities in our calculations. In many situations, the traditional practices supported by technology are proving to be the most effective, as well as allowing us to reconnect with the meaning of a production activity.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
Illustration: Graham Hobster on Pixabay
