Modern medicine emphasizes the immediate relief of symptoms. This is certainly lifesaving in emergencies, but more ordinary diseases may benefit more from another approach. Modern medicine’s time frame ignores the long-term wellbeing of patients and the environment.

Many of us live our lives striving for short-term goals. The consequences are similar to those of modern medicine. We have witnessed the growth of consumerism in the previous decades. People believe that if they achieve more, have more material possessions, or even more love, they will be happier. The empty feeling that people often find themselves struggling with occurs when our goals are not in the best interests of the interrelated network of life that surrounds us.

Pressing further on our destructive path, we eat processed food, denying our bodies essential nutrients and clogging our cells with preservatives and chemicals. We live in an environment that is polluted from our desire to consume more. We are digging ourselves a deeper grave.

Fertilizers, pesticides, genetically modified foods are all examples of this approach which results in short-term gain but ends in long-term destruction.