Something to Think About

I am by no means a scientist or researcher. Studies have over and over disproven thoughts of the type I'm about to expose, BUT STILL there has to be a reason for the extreme increases in cancer, ADHD, alzheimers, autism, etc. occuring throughout the past decades. The BBC came out with this recent article:

New research in India suggests exposure to pesticides could have damaged the DNA of people in farming communities, leading to higher rates of cancer. Scientists at Patiala University, Punjab state, did the study, tracking a group of farmers for several months. But a spokesman for the crop industry trade association said a causal link between pesticide use and cancer could not be established.
There have been concerns about potential links for several years. This new study discovered that the DNA of farmers in Punjab has been altered, making them susceptible to cancer. Professor Satbir Kaur said the study ruled out other factors such as age, alcohol intake and smoking, concluding that the probable cause of this fundamental change in the building block of life was use of pesticide sprays.
"We found significant change in the DNA, so the cancer risk is greatly increased when the extent of DNA damage is very high," he said. Salil Singhal of the industry trade association, the Crop Care Federation of India, said that this causal link could not be possible.
"There is no pesticide in use today which can cause cancer," he said. Mr Singhal said farmers use sprays only a few times each season. But this correspondent found farmers who needed to use them far more than that in order to keep ahead of the pests.
One farmer, who said that he was spraying night and day, does have cancer.
As the world struggles to find its way back to securing affordable food supplies, new crop varieties have not kept up the promise of the early days of the green revolution in Asia.
Meanwhile, yields have gone down. And these disturbing indications of a potential threat to human health raise questions over whether intensive farming like this is sustainable.

Victory Gardens

Victory Gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. Making victory gardens became a part of daily life on the home front.

As part of the war effort, the government rationed foods like sugar, butter, milk, cheese, eggs, coffee, meat and canned goods. Labor and transportation shortages made it hard to harvest and move fruits and vegetables to market. So, the government turned to its citizens and encouraged them to plant "Victory Gardens." They wanted individuals to provide their own fruits and vegetables.

Nearly 20 million Americans answered the call. They planted gardens in backyards, empty lots and even city rooftops. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different kinds of foods and formed cooperatives, all in the name of patriotism.

Farm families, of course, had been planting gardens and preserving produce for generations. Now, their urban cousins got into the act. All in the name of patriotism.

Magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Life printed stories about victory gardens, and women's magazines gave instructions on how to grow and preserve garden produce. Families were encouraged to can their own vegetables to save commercial canned goods for the troops. In 1943, families bought 315,000 pressure cookers (used in the process of canning), compared to 66,000 in 1942. The government and businesses urged people to make gardening a family and community effort.

The result of victory gardening? The US Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 20 million victory gardens were planted. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be 9-10 million tons, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables.

When World War II ended, so did the government promotion of victory gardens, and many people did not plant a garden in the spring of 1946, but agriculture had not yet geared up to full production for grocery stores, so the country experienced food shortages yet again.

(livinghistoryfarm.org)

Life

So over the past year I have found myself pondering (in many cases out of need, but also out of interest) our budget, our health, gardening, sustainable living, green lifestyles, child rearing, urban living, philosophies for my ideal school, and godly stewardship. The more I ponder, the more I come to see how interrelated these things are.

Every once in awhile I'll get lost in the world wide web reading blogs that lead me from one site to another, to a book or a youtube video or website. People are strongly opinionated on these matters! There's the right, the left, the indifferent. It always amazes me to talk with some Christians who have very strong opinions about recycling. They think it's rubbish (had to throw that in.) Why bother? Global warming is hog wash.

I haven't spent the last year pondering global warming, only reading what I come across, but still, this opinion baffles me. Hasn't Christ called us to be stewards of this earth He created? Don't we want to perserve it for our children's children to come? How much harder is it to throw a pepsi can in a recycling box than the waste bucket? On the other side of this argument are the people who believe gardening and sustainability to be an expression of activism.

Where are those that simply want to save money, be healthier, take care of the earth and enjoy God's creation? It is a miracle in itself to watch the transformation of a tiny seed into a lumbering plant that actually feeds a family!

There are two books I have read reviews of and am interested in reading:

"Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community" by Heather Coburn Flores
and "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan. These 2 books have mixed reviews and seem to be worth reading. Flores is an activist and takes the more extreme posistion - reviews say she comes off as "preachy" quite a bit, but the lawns to gardens or lawns to food idea makes so much sense to me!

One thing I appreciate and have come to love about Portland, Or is that concept. A large number of homes have taken out their lawns and replaced them with gardens. The result is actully a much more beautiful home! Amazing smells as you take your walks, endless things to look at, less time spent caring for your property and money actually saved (after some initial output, of course.) There seem to be many pros to this idea:

1. Americans spend $27 billion per year caring for lawns.
2. A 25' x 40' lawn needs 10,000 gallons of water each summer.
3. A conventional mower pollutes as much in an hour as driving 100 miles in your car.
4. We send over 160 million tons of lawn clippings as solid waste to the landfill each year.
5. The average urban lawn can produce several hundred pounds of food a year!
(gathered from various sources)

Pollan's book makes some of these interesting points:

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food
2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high fructose corn syrup.
3. Pay more, eat less (in other words, food isn’t just about quantity and price, it’s about quality, too).


I don't know. I don't have a philosophy or an agenda to all this. It just seems to make sense to me. So far my garden is looking great. I enjoy it, we all eat it and it continues to grow.


All praise to you, O Lord of all creation;
You made the world, and it is yours alone,
The planet earth you spun in its location
Amid the stars adorning heaven’s dome.
We lease the earth but for a life’s duration,
Yet for this life it is our cherished home.

With grace you clothed the earth in splendor;
With teeming life you filled the sea and land.
Instill in us a sense of awe and wonder,
When we behold the bounty of your hand.
Then when we hear the voice of bird or thunder,
We hear the voice our faith can understand.

To tend the earth is our entrusted duty,
For earth is ours to use and not abuse,
O gracious Lord, true Source of all resources,
Forgive our greed that wields destruction’s sword.
Then let us serve as wise and faithful stewards,
While earth gives glory to creation’s Lord.
-Jean Sibelius

Recipe for Green

Take one seed,













Take one plot
Of deep, dark earth.
(But not a lot.)

Dig a bit,
Leave a while.
(More than a minute
Less than a mile.)

Take some rain,
Take some sun;

Now your work is
Almost done.

Up from under,
Out from in,
Look,
Sprout,















Time to begin!!
(Jane Yolen)