Creating the Future one Mustard Seed at a Time
Lovegardens
Hello everyone. I've been meaning to start a blog, and tonight's the night. It will probably mostly be a broken record about my favorite subject of cooperation (writing books and creating websites on the subject), but first I would like to start with a little something different.
Lately, I've been feeling called back to my birthplace of Nineveh...err...Sacramento, where it seems that there is work to be done around food. A few days ago I arrived in town to find the lead story in the local paper was this gem:
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/897193.html
The gist of it is that people who live in neighborhoods with lots of fast food and poor access to fresh foods are more likely to suffer from obesity and diabetes. This is no big surprise. The solutions offered were along the lines of banning new fast food joints or encouraging (read "bribing") developers to build grocery stores. Of course, there's a reason why those neighborhoods lack grocery stores, and those will probably intensify as the economy deteriorates. One of my projects is helping start cooperatives, but in keeping with my non-cooperative theme of this first post, I'm going to focus more on something that came to me in a moment of insomnia last month.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I propose to you the Lovegarden. This is a bit of a riff on the old wartime "victory gardens" and offer an opportunity to reach out to the neighbors in an important way. Basically, churches, mosques and synagogues can find underused land (vacant lots or perhaps their own big silly lawn) and turn it into a tangible expression of love, growing food to share with the neighbors. Ideally this would be an interfaith action, not aimed as proselytizing. Show them your love, don't tell them about it. We can't forget that sharing food was a central theme of the early ecclesia.
Here's the scripture that launched this...
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; (Jer 29:4-5)
The Orb sampled a recording of this for their album Live 93 in one of my favorite tracks, and I always wondered what the heck it was. Now I know.
I think we're going to be in Bablyon for a while longer, so it seems that we need to start finding ways to feed ourselves and our neighbors. Food prices are getting out of hand, and with gas prices up and jobs going down, we need to start thinking in terms of feeding people with our own sweat, rather than relying on the profit-driven system that created this mess.
Lately, I've been feeling called back to my birthplace of Nineveh...err...Sacramento, where it seems that there is work to be done around food. A few days ago I arrived in town to find the lead story in the local paper was this gem:
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/897193.html
The gist of it is that people who live in neighborhoods with lots of fast food and poor access to fresh foods are more likely to suffer from obesity and diabetes. This is no big surprise. The solutions offered were along the lines of banning new fast food joints or encouraging (read "bribing") developers to build grocery stores. Of course, there's a reason why those neighborhoods lack grocery stores, and those will probably intensify as the economy deteriorates. One of my projects is helping start cooperatives, but in keeping with my non-cooperative theme of this first post, I'm going to focus more on something that came to me in a moment of insomnia last month.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I propose to you the Lovegarden. This is a bit of a riff on the old wartime "victory gardens" and offer an opportunity to reach out to the neighbors in an important way. Basically, churches, mosques and synagogues can find underused land (vacant lots or perhaps their own big silly lawn) and turn it into a tangible expression of love, growing food to share with the neighbors. Ideally this would be an interfaith action, not aimed as proselytizing. Show them your love, don't tell them about it. We can't forget that sharing food was a central theme of the early ecclesia.
Here's the scripture that launched this...
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; (Jer 29:4-5)
The Orb sampled a recording of this for their album Live 93 in one of my favorite tracks, and I always wondered what the heck it was. Now I know.
I think we're going to be in Bablyon for a while longer, so it seems that we need to start finding ways to feed ourselves and our neighbors. Food prices are getting out of hand, and with gas prices up and jobs going down, we need to start thinking in terms of feeding people with our own sweat, rather than relying on the profit-driven system that created this mess.
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