Courage

We just got our Seed Savers Harvest 2008 Edition in the mail. Seed Savers Exchange is a non profit, publicly supported organization founded in 1975 specializing in saving and sharing Heirloom Seeds.

The article Farmer in Chief by Michael Pollan immediately drew my attention. Originally appearing in the New York Times Magazine October 9, 2008, this open letter is directed toward the U.S. President-Elect. Pollan begins: "It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food."

This article is a serious read analyzing Food and Agricultural Issues to which most in so-called modern society are oblivious. But Food is no small item on scales of Health, Sustainability, Survival, National Security, and Celebration of Life. I would only have to ask my Croatian Grandparents who came to the United States 100 years ago in 1908 "because there was no food." That quote was the explanation given to us when Melanie and I visited the villages of our Grandparents in Croatia in 2002. Parents sent their children away.

In our "modern", high technology, and business-oriented times, we have created massive Food Systems based upon Self Interest, Greed, and Now rather than Sustainability and Responsibility toward Present and Future Generations. When we as a culture walked away from Gardening and Tending the Soil to produce our own Food, we left behind elemental experiences essential to the fullness of the Human Experience: Connection to the Soil which Sustains Us and "Do It Yourself" Skills to Survive and Thrive.

Further, we left the "Fox to guard the Chicken House" while we headed into the busy-ness and self absorption of our days. That Fox was a system whose 1st goal was protection of its own self interest with little interest in analyzing consequences.

Pollan's article is a serious read for serious times. It underscores our attention to growing our own Food on this Little Farm. This is an article with which I will need to "sit" for some time. It is probably best read 1 paragraph at a time with adequate time for thought and reflection.

Somehow, we will find our way through these things and these times. We should take along a Long Time Friend of the Human Species: Courage. That Friend had almost been forgotten but is one with whom we shall be privileged to reacquaint. As I look into the eyes of Little Ones accompanying Holiday Greetings in picture form, I know that we as a Society can ill afford to do less.