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Bottom line: we should own our food. We should own the process that brings that food to our table. We should take a proprietary interest in producing our food and if we can’t then we should take an interest in the people who do produce it.
We are divorced, in this country, from our food. We have abdicated our responsibility for our sustenance to large corporations, massive food producers and the federal government. Far too many of us assume food comes from a grocery market, not a farm. We are removed from the dirt, the very essence of what makes food viable to us.
I grew up with gardens. My parents grew lots of food and the kids helped pick the harvest, weed the rows and water. What we didn’t grow or didn’t grow enough of we went to a “u-pick’em” field and paid to pick the vegetables or fruit ourselves. My mother was an avid preserver…canned fruits, jellies, jams, you name it she preserved it. We ate those things all winter long. Honestly, it was a big job. I have had a garden that big and it is a lot of constant work. On the other hand it is a labor of love. There is nothing that quite compares to sitting down to a meal that you prepared with ingredients that you started from seed months prior. You watered them, nurtured them, harvested them, and in the end enjoyed the bounty.
We must stop allowing large corporate interests to own our food. The only way to stop them is to start planting food ourselves. Just a few vegetables to start with...one zucchini plant will produce enough squash to feed your entire family. A single package of lettuce will produce enough salad for your summer. These small acts of rebellion against the agricultural combine may not seem to be much but they will add up. You can also go find farmers yourself…CSA’s, Bountiful Baskets and other small producers welcome your participation in their efforts. Get to know the people you are trusting to put food on your table for you and your children. Support their efforts to be sustainable stewards of the land we all need to live on. Theirs is a labor of love, not a labor to squeeze every cent out of every acre.
Your children will never forget the lessons the garden teaches. They are bigger than plant water and care. They extend to goal setting, forward planning, delayed gratification and handling disappointment. These are lessons learned with your hands in the dirt and have a way of becoming deeply ingrained.
It isn’t hard and it won’t take a super human effort but the results will be life altering. Food sovereignty is up to each of us. The sooner we act the sooner we can find real health.
Namaste
John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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