Pre-reading instructions: This post contains interactive links to some websites. Please feel free to click and discover! This will be a common occurrence in future blogs as well, for how do we learn if we do not share ?
On a weekly basis I get an email summary from the Climate Crisis Coalition (I know, a lot of doom and gloom business, but how are we going to change the world if we are ignorant?)
This posting below really rang true with mine and Joseph's passions right now. It should be a focus for all of us. The only way to make change is to support local foods, local farms, buy organic when possible, and plant your own garden. One of the most patriotic things you can do is to have your own garden and provide some of your own food. Eating from your own garden also lessens the crunch on your bank account. You also know exactly what sort of chemicals or additives you use on your produce (I recommend not using any, just some manure, vermicompost(the website isn't mine, although it's coming!), and a good organic leaf mulch). Count how many fruits, vegetables, and other daily staples (and unnecessary calories added to our bodies) are from a different country. Herbicides, pesticides and fungicides that have been banned for decades (remember DDT?) are still being used in these countries. Join a Community Supported Agriculture program/farm in your area. They will deliver a box of fruits and veggies that are in season to your doorstep. Join the Slow Food Movement. Shop at your local farmer's market. Eat in season and eat a diverse range of foods and food groups. Your body is a temple. Eat to Live, not Live to Eat.
Take Note, Rome: Loss of Biodiversity and Sustainable Farming Practices Are Big Contributors to Hunger. Commentary by Gonzalo Oviedo, BBC News, June 2, 2008.
"We have a global food crisis... Unsustainable agricultural policies and technologies, inequitable trade rules, agricultural subsidies that distort the markets, and the systematic marginalization of small producers lie at the heart of [it]... [along with] chronic under-investment in agriculture in developing countries, and a real neglect of the basic premise that ecosystems have to be in good shape... The... massive expansion of agriculture [over the past 50 years]... has left us with 60% of all ecosystem services degraded, accelerated species extinction, and huge loss in genetic diversity. Currently, four plant species -- wheat, maize, rice and potato -- provide more than half of the plant-based calories in the human diet, while about a dozen animal species provide 90% of animal protein consumed globally. We have already lost three-quarters of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops. As the agricultural frontier has expanded, those farmers previously dependent on [more diverse crops] have converted to cash crops. As traditional varieties and breeds die out, so too do the traditional knowledge and practices of local farmers. Those same practices could now be critical in adapting to climate change." Gonzalo Oviedo is senior advisor on social policy with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (formerly the World Conservation Union).
My boss has just published his second book and it talks about just this concept. It is called "Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy." Check it out here. Amazing. Inspiring.
We live the way we want to, in hopes that someone else will notice and ask why we are so happy. It is, then, that we will tell them.
No comments:
Post a Comment