As gardeners, and in community, we can make a real difference to protect and support the planet. We are living in very challenging times. Uncontrolled assaults on our planet’s resources and inhabitants, climate crisis, a political culture of runaway collusion and corruption, our personal safety and our personal freedoms under threat, perpetual wars, etc., etc. And what’s propelling it all is the power of Big Money. And Big, Corporate Money has been behind virtually all of our social, economic and environmental ills. For a very long time, corporations and their allies in power have spent vast fortunes to manipulate us in ways that separate us from each other, make us fear each other, pit us against each other. This is all for the purpose of distracting us from the power we could exert if we came together in community.
We can be pretty sure that food prices will continue to rise, especially if our farms are left without skillful immigrant labor to plant, tend and harvest our crops. If only these hard-working people were valued for their essential work and were actually rewarded appropriately for it and given a safe working environment without exposure to toxic chemicals. So, what will we do? We can realize that they are us; that they directly affect what we put on our plates three times a day. We know that many of you already support them through the United Farm Workers union, through giving sanctuary, and other avenues. We can continue to support them and all the other denigrated, abused, vilified, scapegoated people we’re told are beneath us. We can join in community with them in many, many ways.
We can also work outside the system and grow our own food, for ourselves and for our community. There are many community gardening opportunities in our towns and cities, and now is the time to apply for space in them. You get to choose what you plant. You get to decide who and what your money supports. Are you going to buy your seeds, plants and supplies from small growers with integrity that put their values and their love into their products, or from Amazon/Jeff Bezos? You can also learn how to save your own seeds and grow your own plants. We offer books, classes and supplies to help you. You can add a patch of native plants to your garden to help create a patchwork of habitat that supports the heroes of our local ecosystems, the insects, birds, and bats. And we can invite our neighbors to add their own pieces of the quilt and create habitat corridors to exponentially boost the health of our ecosystem and our gardens. Thank you for letting me get on my soapbox!