Monday, October 1, 2012

Organic festivals nurture "Common Ground"

Here is a great article in the New York Times about a celebration of organic farms, farmers, and food in Maine. 

There are so many great 'one-liners' in here from the farmers themselves (not the writer) that truly give an accurate picture of this life, why people are doing it, and why it is vitally important to the health of our communities. "I want to take a nap" is one of them :) but we won't get to do that until after our garlic is planted. 

Here is another one:
“People spend so much time quibbling, they don’t know what it means to be alive,” said Mr. Bunker, who generally avoids talking politics. But who could argue with dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, he said, “from all those nitrates flowing down the Mississippi.”

I have not had time to weigh in on the recent uproar over 'the Stanford' study that showed 'no benefit' to consuming organic foods. I still don't have time to do a thorough discussion, but I will easily say I don't agree with their conclusions at all. 

The comment above could not have summarized my position better. (Thank you, Mr. Bunker!) 

I can also say with complete truthfulness that my husband and I have thrown our hat in the ring for the long-haul and have no plans to move or do anything else in the future. We see the future and want to help create it, thus the motto for our farm became "Shaping our future from the ground up", where "our" is intentionally very large, very inclusive, starting with our soil and simply widening up and out from there to include our family, our community, our State of Michigan, my profession (dietetics) and our other health care professions, and society at large, i.e. finding, cultivating, and nurturing our "common ground". 

I hope you can take the time to read the article

Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD

2 comments:

Colette Szabo said...

Thanks for posting the article Diana! I spent the weekend at the Common Ground Fair, volunteering in the community kitchen at night and soaking up an unbelievable amount of information during the day. Over 700 different workshops, demonstrations, and seminars given over three days. Its impossible to see and do it all, but what a wonderful opportunity to learn from such an amazing group of people. I highly encourage others to attend next year's Common Ground Fair. I know I plan on being there!

Diana Dyer said...

Oh how exciting! I would love to hear all about your experience. Hmm, ok - start thinking about what the steps are to recreate that here in MIchigan. We could combine it with a garlic and honey and kale festival! :)