Beginning a diatribe such as this is inherently dangerous to the
productivity of such a valuable mailing service that serves the collective
good of sane individuals in agriculture.
I urge you to tell this student that a vast majority of practioners of
organic gardening in residential applications are women. These women are
going about educating themselves and their offspring at the same time by
making an organic home garden a classroom for environmental understanding.
To deny credit to the nurturers is wrong based solely on some stereotypical
observations made by some disconnected perch sitters.
We operate a resource centre where people obtain alternative gardening
advice for production of food crops as well as ornamentals. 65-75% of our
initial clients are working women with valid concerns about the food that
their families consume. They are in a position to change things and often
go about doing just that.
Instead of continuing on some counter productive rhetoric on why women
don't have enough time, why don't we honor those women that are changing
the way America perceives it's food supply and are making positive change
in that direction by starting small.
I think that it is time to dispel with the paradigm of the stressed out
working woman trying to invent more time. We are all infinitely capable
beings with time to do the things that are important.
This service is one way that I am sure many people get some of that
practical information. Let's focus on that.
Organically yours,
Donald W. Trotter PhD.
The Organic Gardener's Resource Centre>
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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Donald Trotter
The Organic Resource Centre
293 Neptune Ave.
Encinitas, CA. 92024
curly@mill.net
1.888.514.4004
fax- 760.632.8175
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