However, I was reminded of these issues when looking at the frozen berries I just picked up. Though not exactly these (my package also has pomegranate seeds) berries:
For so many reasons (emissions, chemical use, monocropping, transportation), I need to grow my own food. It's been difficult for us in a small condo. [I try to placate my lack of congruence in food with my small footprint in living quarters, but that's just not good enough anymore.]
I've decided to take first steps in rectifying the situation by: 1) studying my 'edible garden' continuing education materials from a class last spring through Kirkwood, and 2) applying for a plot in the Coralville Community garden.
Based on my studies (which will be further refined by visiting a seed/garden shop this spring) and assuming I get a plot, I plan to grow spinach, carrots, some sort of beans (green, kidney) and peas (snow pea?), tomato, pepper, watermelon, and butternut squash. I may add garlic, radish, or onion for critter repellant if needed. I am a bit limited in that I can only plant annuals and not large bushes (would love to have raspberry, blueberries, rhubarb, etc.), but something is better than nothing.
After watching "More Than Honey" last night,
I realize that being a non-honey eating vegan is important to me given the way modern honey is produced and bees exhausted. Further, the movie made us realize that we must be more aware of the (at least) small distinction between conventional and organic when it comes to the production of favorite foods if we want to avoid being part of the problem. For example, I eat a lot of almonds, but we watched the systematic extermination of the bees pollinating the almonds as a result of chemical sprays on the trees. We also watched Chinese workers trying to hand pollinate almond trees. To say this is dangerous and inefficient would be a gross understatement. Overall, we were appalled by the monocropping and exploitation enough to recommit to local and diversified and organic (or grow your own) as much as possible.
My recent need for congruence also has me pondering possible dwellings and contacting Abundance Ecovillage architects. I know we could construct passive solar and extra spacing/insulation, but could we go small enough to heat with radiant floor and/or wood stove? Could we use a composting toilet? Do we need much electricity if properly fitted with solar water heating and battery bank? [But could we afford the latter?]
In general, I would like my life to be more authentic in living and food production. All of this musing has implications for Social Problems, Introduction to Sociology, and Sociology of the Environment. If, as Bucko notes in "Occupy Spirituality," we are able to divorce ourselves from our impact on nature precisely because of our daily disconnect from it (and because of our false sense of ourselves as separate from nature), students need to be doing assignments designed to get them connected with nature again. I'm not exactly sure what form that will take, but it might be to grow something (even indoors), it might be to touch the earth at a nature center, or, more likely, it will be a set of possible somethings that each student has always wanted to do outside, but hasn't yet been given permission (or been assigned!) to do. One of the honey farmers in "More Than Honey" appears exceptionally calloused to the death of his bees. He hints at having been deeply moved by their deaths in past, however, and to 'losing a part of his soul' in the process of the commercial venture. [He also says his grandfather would be mortified at the disconnect in modern bee keeping from the hive and from the welfare of the bees.] We must give people the opportunity to reconnect with their souls by growing and maintaining life rather than destroying it. Failure to do so deprives us of our fundamental humanity and our sense of interconnectedness.
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