Garden

Both as individuals and societies we have largely lost our connection to the earth by a system which relegates food production on a massive scale to machines and petrochemicals.  Our loss of connection to the earth is arguably the source of the environmental crises which we have at present, of which the climate crisis is just one.

Gardening can reconnect us with the earth.  It is fun, educational, healthy, ‘grounding’, and spiritually uplifting at the same time… and you get to literally enjoy the fruits of your labor. You can learn to garden in the smallest of backyards.  You can even learn to garden out of pots and boxes on a veranda, balcony or roof top.

By gardening, you get to ‘opt out’ of food produced by petrochemicals, not just as fuels, but as fertilizers and pesticides.  You also get to avoid some of the exposure to those petrochemically produced toxins (herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and biocides of all kinds) which are in rampant use in our industrial agriculture at present. Let’s face it, all of the toxins created to kill ‘pests’ and ‘weeds’ are not limited in their toxicity.  They are toxins to life, and we are facing the results in the epidemic rates of cancers, developmental problems, and the like which cannot be traced to a ‘point source’.  It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that when you disperse toxic chemicals into the environment, eventually (and often immediately) they will be consumed by humans.  They will accumulate in bodily tissues (ours and those species we consume) and eventually manifest as diseases, symptoms, syndromes and conditions of ‘non-specific origin’.  Thus the petro-chemical industry is off the hook.  Research into side effects is shamefully thin on most agricultural chemicals individually, and as an interacting mass, deplorably thin.

You can learn organic gardening with natural tools, products and methods.  Again, the benefits are multiple… health, vitality, connection with the web of life, understanding, and wisdom.  By the way, since we are pragmatists and not purists here at the ClimateCorps, don’t worry if you have a box of some conventional fertilizer to use up.  Just avoid the ‘-cides’ at all cost.

So let’s include some links (there are countless others online) to sources for organic gardening: