The composting economy

Great city's recent panel discussion on transition initiatives gave rise to this comment: "They say the economy is shrinking. I think the economy is composting."
It's an accurate analogy. Formerly vibrant living things die off, rot for awhile and then become fodder for other living things. Many habits of a typical American's consumption will have to die and decompose before new forms of economic life emerge.
These habits must die:

• using disposable plastic bags
• buying plastic bottled water
• the average American who eats 200 pounds of meat annually

To the carnivores among us: Producing animal protein requires eight times as much fossil fuel as producing a comparable amount of plant protein, as reported by David Sirota.