Mother Nature and my girlfriend grew a fabulous garden, and now I seem to be in charge of making sure the stuff gets used.  My first strategy has been to eat just as many string beans, tomatoes, squash, carrots, pears, flowers of broccoli, and ears of corn as possible.  With these plus organic whole grains, dried beans, and (on her part at least) creative use of herbs and spices, we're eating pretty healthy; my stomach has no room left for garbage.
         My second strategy in coping with this bounty has been to give it away--especially the tomatoes; we've been swimming in tomatoes!  It's loads of fun giving people this wonderful food--they like it, we get to talking, and I am coaxed out of my isolation.  Also, plenty of juicy plums and colorful vegetables seem to have returned our way.
         I know this is old news to many folks around here--people close to the soil, who know their plants and neighbors.  But it's new to me, and I brim with excitement over it.  I grew up thinking food came from "the store"; now I know it comes from the earth.
         Transportation, refrigeration, and modern agriculture provide us an immense
variety of food, but much of it--and the way it is produced--undermines both our health and the planet's health.
         "Organic" food is not an invention of hippies or counterculture types.  Sixty years ago, organic food was the only option.  Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides--all made using lots of oil--are recent innovations.  Cheap oil is the lifeblood of our current agriculture.  Monoculture crops enable automated, energy-intensive farming; these crops are especially vulnerable to insects, so we're dependent on pesticides.  Insects become resistant to these chemicals, so we make new poisons.  Pollution accumulates.  The topsoil of our heartland runs down the Mississippi each year.  Ground water resources in the Great Plains are severely depleted.  In the end, most of the food crop is fed to cows, pigs, and chickens anyway--who are often housed in crowded, sometimes atrocious conditions. Ten pounds of grain makes one pound of meat, which in turn makes little sense,
considering that overconsumption of animal "products" is strongly implicated in our
epidemics of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, and other diseases.  By largely ignoring the relationship of diet to health, our medical system has facilitated the development of our self-destructive agriculture.
         Along with automation and the use of chemicals, another recent phenomenon is the marketing of highly processed and packaged foods.  Read the ingredients!  Just what is "hydrogenated soybean oil"?  When food corporations "hydrogenate" a vegetable oil, they make it more "saturated" with hydrogen atoms.  This might turn it from a liquid to a solid (like margarine) at room temperature.  Also, the process deforms the shape of the molecule, turning it into a "trans" fatty acid which the body tries to utilize but which unfortunately fouls up cell membrane transport processes throughout the body.  Don't eat it!
         Agribusiness and food corporations exist to make a profit for their shareholders; the health-giving or health-destroying quality of their products is irrelevant to this goal. We, on the other hand, exist to be healthy, vibrant, creative, and energetic beings--and we need good nutrition to thrive.

         Cuban agriculture has recently undergone a huge shift from "modern" methods back toward organic practices.  They have done this of necessity since 1989 when the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba's supply of oil and agricultural chemicals was suddenly and dramatically reduced.  They have purchased large shipments of bicycles, and people are in better shape.  Tractors sit idle; oxen pull plows.  Crops are intermingled and rotated; cover crops nourish the soil.  Composting and worm composting are practiced on an industrial scale.  A variety of approaches are used to strike a balance with weeds and insects, with minimal use of chemicals.  Much of this agriculture is labor intensive, so many people have migrated from the city back to the countryside.  In Havana, urban gardening has greatly increased.
         Whether Cuban society on the whole is good or not, I couldn't say.  But--to quote one author--this is "an experiment the world should be watching."  In our mainstream media, we hear relatively little about Cuba.  Why?

         Oil will get a lot more expensive here, too--probably within ten years, according to a recent article in Scientific American.  Our military posture keeps cheap oil flowing through the Persian Gulf, and thus our taxes subsidize monoculture crops and Big Macs.  We also subsidize the current food system through below cost grazing permits on public land, taxpayer-funded water projects, and in many other ways.
         The end of cheap oil approaches; the intelligent thing to do is live a healthy life and anticipate future changes.  I'm thrilled to live in a place with fantastic access to organic whole foods.  I enjoy their superior flavor, and love feeding my body the best fuel available.  If organic food costs more, I consider it a political contribution for a better world, and realize it's only more expensive for me because it's not subsidized by a self-destructive system which harms the planet and threatens our children's future.  In the long run, organic food is much more frugal.
         The philosophy of dominating and controlling nature is reaching toward its logical and possibly tragic conclusion.  Every breath we take confirms that we are part of the natural world, and interdependent with it.  The sooner we cooperate with nature, the better.
         A couple weeks ago, I dug in the garden; my girlfriend planted onions, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.  She plans a winter garden, and I'm all for it.  I picked the rest of the beans the other day, and now there's more space that needs digging.  She's going to plant carrots--I'd better get to work.
 
 

 
           The McDougall On-line Wellness Center--Dr. John McDougall has done incredible work on diet and health.  He has written several very readable, well-researched books, most of which have numerous delicious and easy to prepare receipes developed by his wife Mary.
         The Center for the New American Dream is a wonderful place from which to explore sustainable living.  Click "Main Menu" to get an overview of this awesome site.  You can also easily subscribe to an e-mail discussion with a different topic each month and no more than one message per day coming to you.
         Howard Lyman site:  Mr. Lyman along with Oprah Winfrey were sued by the Texas Cattlemen for criticizing beef as a food in relation to a discussion on Mad Cow Disease.  This site is wonderful.  The "Recommended Readings" section is fantastic.
          The North Coast Co-op has great links for vegetarians, organic farming, and to a variety of Humboldt County sites.  Click "home" to get back to the Co-op's main page.
        EarthSave Links:  EarthSave is a wonderful organization founded by John Robbins (who wrote the powerful book "Diet For A New America").  Many links listed here!
        Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CAT) has a wonderful site with links to hundreds of other environmental organizations.
        The Green Scissors Campaign of the organization Friends of the Earth is a coalition of taxpayer groups and environmentalists who are working to cut government subsidies which harm our planet.
        Sustainable Agriculture:  this page has information about fertilizers, pesticides, and their related energy costs.  If you scroll to the bottom, you can then click back to find out more from the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research program.
        Grazing on Public Lands:  find out how we're subsidizing meat production here.
          Range Watch "seeks common sense solutions to the problems associated
with the environmentally damaging, deficit spending program of commercial grazing on public lands."  You can learn all about this important issue here, and Range Watch also provides an astounding page of links.
        Diet and Multiple Sclerosis:  a remarkable paper (somewhat technical) by a scientist whose son was diagnosed with MS.  He discusses how people with MS are harmed because medical and research efforts ignore the major role diet plays in this disease.