American culture is somewhat of a new beast that has evolved from those of old with direct origin and scattered roots. So many things about our culture boggle my brain, and I would like to start a section of my blog about our culture...in relation to organic agriculture of course! Oh yes, and some of my thoughts may be a bit extreme, but they are mainly just to provoke thoughts in you...
Whether it be mac or pc who first founded the “undo” button, I think that it has now permeated into our culture in a very dangerous way. Here's the problem...reality, you know this thing that we live in and cannot escape no matter how we would like to, has left us to ignorance. There is no “undo” button in life, but we often live like there is don't we. A poor financial budget may be temporarily mended by the aid of those kind plastics like MasterCard or Visa...right? A few insults can be recounted by an apology...right? We can ignore the poor and the desolate because we don't have to see them or the government will take care of them...right? I can sin against the Lord and my neighbors how ever much I want now because Jesus will always forgive me, will always take me back, will always “blot out my offenses”...right? (Yes, even Christianity has been Americanized in a way which I doubt God ever intended.) We can suck all of the powerful, important juices and oils from our environment and it will all just blow over...right? We can eat all of the corn syrup we want...diabetes will never hit me...right? Chemicals absorbed by our bodies from vegetables, grains, fruits, etc. aren't the cause for the increasing rate of cancer in America...right? I could go on you see...there are hundreds of things that we continue to sweep under the rug for someone else to deal with because they will never effect us...right?
I remember when I was taking drivers ed classes for the first time several years ago, and my instructor pounded the reality of death and injury with horrific images of collisions saying over and over how teenagers these days think that they are invincible. I do agree that the average American teenager believes that he or she has some indestructible attributes, but where to they get them?
Evidence shows that the “baby boomers” have been living like nothing could harm them (or should I say they could harm nothing) just like they complain that their children do. Look at the above list...you know the one where I kept saying “right” annoyingly at the end of every sentence...I could sit here and write pages and pages about agriculture and how we don't understand anymore what real food is, and I probably will do this a lot, but the point is that the issue is broader. The issues that I will discuss about industrial agriculture (aka Agribusiness) are just a small part of many many problems in our culture that all funnel down to things like greed and an uninformed people.
This “undo” button has become our escape from the reality of reality even if there isn't an out we make an out disregarding its affects to society, our offspring, and sometimes even ourselves. Take the food system for example: with government subsidies, genetically modified seeds, chemicals, gases, preservatives, etc. We don't grow vegetables, fruit, and meat anymore. We grow food, something to fill us up and pass through our bodies while hopefully leaving some nutritional bits behind...I may not be explaining this well, but think of it this way. A tomato that is genetically modified from the start, grown in ground that is merely a medium for foliar (liquid) fertilizers, whose flesh is drenched in herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides so that not a blemish can be found, who is picked when still green just to be ripened by chemical gases in trucks while being transported hundreds of miles to the grocery store where we can get it...this tomato is very different from a tomato that is grown in your county or region with no chemicals, few foliar fertilizers, and whose roots are allowed to stretch deep into well-maintained soil packed full of nutrients...the same nutrients that make there way into your body via the finished tomato! I know that I rambled that out, but hopefully that can give you an idea of what I mean when I talk about authentic food.
When you take all of the basic things in life for granted: food, water, shelter, family, healthy spirituality, and now for some even cellphone and other “essential” electronics...then nothing matters anymore. Would it be better for me to say that nothing of importance matters anymore? It may sit better with you that way, but though comfort is grand the importance of raw beneficials such as food, water, etc (minus the “essential” electronics) cannot be outstripped. I would like to pose that it is the things of utmost of importance that are getting lost in the mix, while things of excess – keep in mind excess isn't always bad – have caught our gaze and our wallets.
So what can we do to change it? First of all the obvious, be thankful for what we have. Most people think that they are “very thankful for all of their blessings in life,” but think about what your life would be like without those essential things that I listed above. Think about how thankful we all should be for our families, friends, food, shelter water, which we probably go about dealing with on a daily basis without ever thinking about it. The next thing that I have tried to do is search for authenticity in all things and be realistic about the problems that we are facing. Recently, I have been searching for authentic food because all we really have to offer are our minds, physical labor, and ideas which are only really powered properly by healthy authentic food. In my search, I have settled on small scale organic production because it makes sense on every level: health, energy usage due to locality of sales, and the consideration of Creation. Also, this lifestyle brings about the opportunity for a more sustainable lifestyle which I think we all need a little more of. Every little change is still change and it adds up. Sometimes I get really discouraged when I realize that there is so much to overcome, but I have been coming back to this quote by Confucious that I first read in a book by Wendell Berry. “...wanting good government in their states, they first established order in their own families; wanting order in the home, they first disciplined themselves...”
Regardless of what others are doing or what difference I think that I am making, I cannot force others to change all I can do is change myself. This is what I have done. I have recognized that a lot of people think that we can just “undo” what we have done to our bodies and our environment with the way that Agribusiness has been treating us and our world, but I cannot lay still while I have see the reality behind the veil of deception. I feel like I vote with each meal that I consume and I try to make the most of each vote and each meal so that my voice will not go to waste.
I love you all...keep reading even if you disagree completely:)
if you want more info watch the film Food Inc. - “You will never look at dinner the same way again.”
Noah
