Androgynously, Rich
PetersFarm@aol.com wrote:
>
> Dear SAN members:
>
> A student wrote me recently, wondering how sustainable/organic can gather
> support when most people just don't seem to care. Specifically, <what are
> the mind-blocks in these people's heads?> In context, <these people> means
> the people who don't seem to care. Two parts of my reply have since been
> churning in my mind. Maybe there's something here for a lively discussion.
>
> The two parts are quoted later for anyone interested, but for brevity's sake
> here is the gist:
>
> 1) Society has always expected wives and mothers to be responsible for
> seeing that others were properly nourished. Today, most American women are
> expected to work outside the home. Working mothers barely have time to order
> pizza. It takes time to be informed about how food is grown and processed.
> It takes time even to learn that one needs such information. (Among you
> SAN members, how many are working women with NO connection to farming at home
> or at work?)
>
> (I believe wives and mothers do care, I believe it is an instinct, a genetic
> heritage, that Monsanto has not gotten its hands on yet.)
>
> 2) In The Turning Point, a classic of the 1970's, Fritjof Capra wrote in
> depth about many serious problems in our culture, but he still had hope,
> based on the number of grass-roots groups pursuing alternatives. What is
> needed, Capra said, was for such groups to join forces and work together.
> One group mentioned was the feminist movement. (As I see it, feminism
> opened the door to opportunity outside the home and then pushed women through
> it.)
>
> QUESTION: Should we, could we, do we, reach out to working mothers? If
> we don't, does anybody else? If we want to, how could we do it? Is there a
> network for Sustainable Motherhood?
>
> Thanks in advance for feedback.
>
> Betty Gras.
> ----------
>
> I wrote the student, in part:
>
> >. . . as I see it, the human mind is only capable of processing a certain
> amount of input in a given day, and that capability, in this country and this
> time, is stretched to the limit and beyond by news (mostly bad), advertising
> (almost entirely bad), music (loud and nervous), and the demands of family
> (if any) and the workplace (for just about everybody.)>
>
> >This last may be one of the problems, although it seems unrelated: Most
> women today work outside the home. By tradition and by genetics, women are
> the ones who would normally be most concerned about the connection between
> food and health. Women at work have little time and freedom to think about
> anything other than their jobs. At home the myriad chores that used to be
> spread through the day have to be crammed into a few hours. The stress and
> tension that result (I call it "strension") are especially draining for women
> with children - the very women who would normally be the most concerned of
> all, the ones who would otherwise read, listen, and think.>
>
> The other part that now seems to connect:
>
> > One of my all time favorite books was written back in the 70's, like many
> other great books. This was The Turning Point, by Fritjof Capra, a nuclear
> physicist of all things! It's a rather depressing overview of what's wrong
> with several aspects of our culture, but at the end he gives reason for hope.
> He was thoroughly convinced (at that time) that the movements in our
> culture, welling up from grass roots rather than handed down from above, were
> headed for the same goal. He believed that the turning point would come
> when these movements recognized their commonality and joined together instead
> of struggling independently.
>
> B.G.
>
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