une/July 2008
My Mother’s Garden
Muktha Jost
Getting A Grip
Frances Moore Lappé
The Documented Health Risk of
Genetically Engineered Foods
Dr. Jeffrey Bland Interviews Jeffrey Smith
The Emerging Significance of Urban Agriculture
Jody Woodruff
Our Food Future
Scott McGuire
We Need A New Generation of Farmers
Zoë Bradbury
Soft Intentions, Hard Results
Peter Moore
Fitness Training For The Brain
Jim Brown and Molly Brown
Improved Health Through Detoxification
Daniel Smith, ND
Awakening and Embodiment
An Interview with Judith Blackstone
Randall Keller
Reclaiming Our Attention
Guy Finley
Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain
Our Food Future
By Scott McGuire
For most of my grown days I’ve been a farmer or gardener. The profound satisfaction I feel when I grow food for family and friends is one of the great joys of my life. And it’s what keeps me hopeful during these days of increasing costs at the gas pump and grocery store. No matter what happens, I know I’ll be able to feed those around me.
Because I’m able and willing to grow the greater portion of my family’s food in our rented backyard, I’m convinced we could all feed ourselves from a local food supply. I can’t do much about the price of gas, but I can change how much food I have to buy. The more I can grow, the more money I’ll have for other things. Creating a portion of my own food supply is the most profound form of homeland security.
I recently attended a local community discussion called Our Food Future. The room was packed with people who wanted to hear farmers and food activists speak about the current conditions of industrial agriculture, and venture some remedies. It’s becoming increasingly evident that industrial agribusiness is fragile and vulnerable, and we cannot consider a food supply which is shipped in on trucks to be as dependable as we once did. But what can we do about it? How do we become food producers when we’ve become dependant food consumers?
The farmers on the evening’s panel, all organic growers who do not depend on harmful chemicals and petroleum-based fertilizers, distribute their crops locally through growers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). While this still requires fuel to make deliveries, at least it isn’t the average 1500 mile trip that most foodstuffs make before arriving on the shelf in the grocery store.
With rising transportation costs, the closer to home a farmer can sell their produce the more they will earn and the better care they can give their soil, assuring that they farms remain in business for a long time. Food produced locally also retains the most nutritional content. Growers markets are thriving with increasing consumer support, and the Community Supported Agriculture model—a marketing strategy for growers which allows people to purchase a share in the farm and receive a box of produce once a week for most of the year—is gaining more and more memberships each year. Some groups of farms have formed CSA collectives, allowing each farm to grow different crops, and the combined membership receives the diverse bounty.
When I was an organic farmer, I was certain that sustainable agriculture was something farmers had to do. Now I’m convinced it’s something we all have to do. Expecting to be fed by farmers has backed us all into a corner of dependency that’s not healthy for anyone. In self-help jargon, this is called “giving your power away,” yet reclaiming one’s power is seldom framed as the ability feed oneself. Having a dependable food supply means we will be able to feed each other in many different ways, including gardening with friends and neighbors. Many folks who do not have their own space rent a plot in a community garden, most often simply a collection of individual plots, where gardeners learn from one another and become good neighbors while tending their patch. Most community gardens have a waiting list, and tenants often remain for many years. More and more of them are sprouting up both within cities and rural areas alike.
Other forms of community gardening are also emerging. The Village Farm in Ashland, Oregon is a small group of farmers who are their own CSA—they each contribute time, resources and work, and share the harvest with each other. This is a new model that has yet to work out all the bugs, but it shows that many diverse forms of “farms” are possible, and some are likely to feed more of us in the days to come.
Another innovative idea comes in the form of Ashland’s Neighborhood Garden Project, where neighbors who have garden space receive help from neighbors who don’t. Membership is free, and participating groups receive discounts on plants and supplies from local sustainable businesses, plus a free consultation from a team of experienced gardeners and a water conservation agent. Groups must agree to grow organically, donate extra produce to local food charities, and attempt to save seed from at least one crop. This is a wonderful new model that cultivates community bonds while propagating multiple eating opportunities.
We don’t have to wait for anyone else to begin our own gardens. Individually, we can start wherever we are to deepen our relationship with the Plant Kingdom, which I view as the recovery program for energy addiction. Every food plant you grow yourself is the most nutritious you can possibly eat. Plants are like sponges, absorbing all the care and attention we provide, and are more than willing to return the favor in the form of flavor. When my daughter walks out in the garden to “graze” on the raspberries, strawberries and fennel, I know she’s getting the best possible food, better than what could be purchased anywhere, because it’s an extension of my love for her.
Entering into a deeper relationship with the plants can start wherever you are. Perhaps it’s a simple potted parsley on your windowsill. Maybe it means putting steel to soil and carving out a little raised bed for salad greens, or expanding your present garden area for more variety and volume. For many it could include weaning their cur-rent gardening practice off of chemical fertilizers and toxic sprays. Growing organically is certainly healthier for the plants, the soil, humans and most everything else that depends on them.
No matter where you enter, the garden gate beckons, inviting us all to get our hands in the soil—our hearts and minds will follow and flourish. Co-creative gardening is a style of horticulture that gives the plants and soils a say in the workings of the whole garden. This type of gardening was pioneered at the Findhorn community in Scotland, and championed by Machaelle Small Wright at her co-creative laboratory Perelandra in Virdgenia. All co-creative gardeners use sound organic principles, such as building soil fertility, conserving water and refusing to use harmful substances. Yet co-creative gardeners don’t stop there, they have refined many practices which reflect a deeper understanding of the true complexity lurking just below the surface.
In many ways, the co-creative garden designs itself. It’s a partnership more than a dictatorship. Many gardeners talk to their plants, and whether they admit it or not, often fall into caring conversations with their rooted treasures. Co-creative gardeners take this one step further and listen to what the plants communicate to them. The trick is learning how to bridge the non-language barrier between verbal and non-verbal species. This requires finding a balance between our logical and intuitive minds, and for many gardeners involves some kind of verification tool such as applied kinesiology, or muscle-testing. I choose the plants I want to grow, and then let the garden choose the details such as where, when and how. The plants know where they want to be placed, what soil amendments to add, and when to place them in their chosen spots. We co-create the whole thing together, and the results are a brilliant blend of colors, vitality and abundance.
Many gardeners are saddled with the mistaken notion that plants are nothing more than little biological mechanisms that merely respond to various stimuli. Their garden sheds are filled with all kinds of nasty chemicals and sprays and they pump their gardens full of “inputs” hoping their yard will end up looking like the pictures in a magazine. Even gardeners who have switched to organic or non-toxic products often think about their gardens in the same way—if only I could find the right substitute for the chemicals, everything would be rosy. But the true cutting edge of plant-craft lies beyond conventional organics, and far beyond the use of deadly herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. The co-creative gardener recognizes that plants are perfectly aware creatures with an innate understanding of their needs as well as acute perceptions of their surroundings. If you need proof of this, I suggest reading The Secret Life of Plants and its follow-up, Secrets of the Soil. More recent studies have shown that certain trees give off specific chemical signals when under stress, detectable by other trees for many miles around. Plumbing the depths of plant awareness is an adventure we’ve barely begun, and vast benefits await us.
How can we enter into the conscious world of the Plant Kingdom? The first thing I tell people is to forget about growing plants. Plants grow perfectly well on their own. Our job as gardeners is to grow the soil, primarily through building compost. When we make sure the soil contains all the necessary minerals and nutrients, the plants will take care of themselves quite nicely. Humans can orchestrate the symphony, but we are not the makers of the music.
Often the very next question is, “what do you do about pests?” I usually answer that I don’t do anything, because there is no such thing as a pest. Of all the millions of insect species, God didn’t create a single one called “pest.” We humans have invented the term to describe an imbalance within the insect populations. Who created the imbalance? The answer is in that garden shed I mentioned earlier, and the billion-dollar industry founded upon waging war on the Insect Kingdom.
Every bug is food for a bird. Every so-called insect pest is food for something else. When I have an imbalance in the garden, I want to attract whatever will eat it by creating a welcoming habitat and ensuring their food supply. Then I want them both to strike a fair balance, which they usually do before too long, and then I get a food supply, too! If I attempted to eradicate the prey species completely, the predator would run out of food and leave, causing the original imbalance to repeat itself eventually. The co-creative gardener finds ways of stepping off these kinds of insidious treadmills that lead us all nowhere but an early grave.
Co-creative gardening takes many organic practices to the next level of sophistication. One example is commonly known as “companion planting.” This is familiar to most experienced organic growers as a collection of anecdotal observations that certain plants thrive in proximity to certain others, and likewise some plants seem to suffer when planted too close to particularly odious neighbors. There are some wonderful books on the subject, like Roses Love Garlic and Tomatoes Love Basil, that provide instructive insights about the nature of various plants.
Yet there is room for a maturation of our understanding of the subject, similar to the way our perspectives on health have been enhanced by the embrace of traditional Chinese medicine. Anyone who has benefited from receiving an acupuncture treatment soon learns about the existence of meridians within the body—energetic pathways that impact our over-all health and vitality. Who would have guessed that a needle in my knee would remove the pain in my neck?
When a co-creative gardener allows all the plants in the garden to be placed where they want to go, they will automatically design into the garden-body various “energy meridians” that will enhance the life forces flowing through it. Then, if imbalances occur, we address them through this energetic level, instead of taking the drastic surgical approach of a plantectomy, and cutting out some vital organ before we fully understand its role and function.
The reality is that plants are some of the most important political tools available to humans. The ability to feed ourselves and our neighbors, to produce fiber and lubricants without oil dependency, to reduce chemical toxicity and purify our water supplies, to remedy the colossal stomping our carbon footprints have given the world, all depend on our willingness to embrace the Plant Kingdom as a partner in the emergent sustainable culture.
The ability to work with plants, save seeds, and grow the things we need is politically subversive. No other single form of personal or community empowerment results in the ability to reject oppressive regimes, to determine sovereignty, to secure the benefits of liberty and cast off the shackles of corporate slavery. Plants form the platform of any true power base.
A people whose lives are deeply enmeshed in plant culture are in the best position to reject the industrial dependencies and brutal machinations of dictators, oligarchs and other agents of greed and destruction. The keys to casting off their influence are found in healthy soils, clean water and seed saving.
Perhaps the greatest gift implicit in a cultural and personal connection with the Plant Kingdom is the level of courage it implants within our core. Along with the ability to feed, clothe and house ourselves, hand in hand with the plants, comes the conviction and strength to determine the outcomes of all the affairs of our lives. For us to have true political power in these difficult days we need to have in our possession a vigorous palette of plant materials at our fingertips. We all want a better life for our children, we all want to be healthy, we all want to live in vital communities with trustworthy neighbors. Deepening our relationship with the Plant Kingdom is a pathway of recovery from the energy addiction that is both feeding us and starving us at the same time.
Scott Allen McGuire, a graduate of the horticultural program at the Farm and Garden Project at UC Santa Cruz founded by Alan Chadwick, has 30 years experience in farming, gardening and permaculture. Scott also offers garden workshops for sustainable living. “Learn How to Save Money, Eat Healthy and Live Green” will take place on Sat, June 14, 1-5pm and “Basic Plant-Craft from Soils to Seeds—Plant Communication for Co-Creative Living” will be on Sat, June 28, 1-5pm. Contact Scott at (541) 488-7489 or scottcg@jeffnet.org. Visit www.cocreativeliving.com to read more of Scott’s articles and to sign up for a free newsletter.
