Loose Leaf Notes

Times sure have changed since the late 80’s when we were a trickle of clowns and kids from Blue Mountain School holding banners and marching through town in a small and poorly attended Earth Day parade.

This weekend I took pictures for the newspaper of our county’s annual Green and Clean trash pick-up, of the opening of a holistic Wellness Center, and a work day kick-off party for the new Floyd Community Garden. I also had dinner at Floyd’s newest eatery, Natasha’s Market Café, a restaurant with a gourmet sensibility and a farm-to-table approach, meaning that locally produced food is featured heavily in the menu.

All this green progress was contrasted by having just seen the PBS airing of Food Inc., an award winning documentary mostly exposing Monsanto, the multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation, for tightening its grip on the world’s food supply by promoting the exclusiveness of their genetically modified seed. As the groundbreaking blessing for the 30 plot Community Garden was being given, I tried not to think about Monsanto taking farmers to court for saving seed, which is as creepy as the science fiction corporation selling air in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall.

At the bake sale fundraising table, I reminisced with Scott Perry who had just finished leading the group in a sing-along with his ukulele.  As workers spread compost, we talked about the family gardens we grew up with.   In our family we were forced to work in our family garden and mortified when my father suggested we set up a farm stand at the end of our driveway. My dad lost interest in the garden after a few years and it lay fallow for a few more years. At age 19, while suffering a major clinical depression, I turned to the garden and found solace in bringing it back to life. I haven’t stopped gardening since.

I tried to remember the Earth Day I attended many years ago (1970?) on the Boson Common in Massachusetts. It might have been the first there. I knew it was a revolutionary good idea but was young and most of it went over my head.

After the Community Garden dedication sing-along and blessing someone shouted out, “Get your hands dirty” and people bent down and scooped up handfuls of dirt. Later, I thought about that imperative statement as a metaphor.  As stewards and watchdogs working to keep our environment clean and to preserve our independence to provide directly for ourselves by growing our own food and saving seed without the interference of corporate seed companies, I knew we were going to have keep getting our hands dirty, in more ways than one.

Post Notes:  Monsanto has been aggressively suing farmers for patent infringement when Monsanto seed naturally drifts onto a farmer’s property and mixes with their crop.  This virtually forces the farmers to comply by buying Monsanto seed or go out of business.  Monsanto also owns a patent on technology that produces plants that have sterile seeds so they do not flower or grow fruit after the initial planting, which could force farmers to be dependent on buying seed.    More photos and stories about the events mentioned above to come. More about the Floyd Community Garden HERE. Watch a video of the dedication HERE.