The Generosity of Seeds
I found and posted this video the other day on the Not Quite Hippie Tumblr and it spread like wildfire through the blogosphere. I’m reposting it here because I think it has an extremely important message and is beautifully made.
Claire from Compeller Pictures on Vimeo.
Right now all of our seeds are germinating. Our indoor seed trays are packed with new life as hundreds of seeds soften, take root, and start producing their first leaves. It is exciting to watch. I feel thankful that these seeds are able to do so much with so little. One seed, a bit of soil and water, and in a few months I will have more food than I know what to do with. I give this seed the most basic, elemental essentials and it provides me with flavors and nutrients I’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
The above clip comes by way of the Untitled GMO Film Project that I have been following via Kickstarter for some time now (if the clip speaks at all to the rest of the film, then we are in for a treat). Our narrator - Claire – takes us through a garden and shows us plants in the autumn just before they produce and send off hundreds, thousands of seeds. These seeds are the very definition of generous. Before the plant dies for the season, it gives off thousands of copies of itself not only so it can live on as a species, but so we can also enjoy their fruits in future generations as well.
If only we could all be as selfless as seeds.
With the arrival of spring everyone is outside more. Many are landscaping their yards, washing their cars, planting gardens and all around enjoying the wonderful weather. In my neighborhood, we didn’t see much of the other people living here during the winter. No one was out on bicycles, but cooped up in cars instead. Windows weren’t open, we couldnt’ hear the conversations going on all around us. Plans were detered or modified based on the snow and ice and cold temperatures and, overall, we saw less of our friends. For the first time in a long time, I understood the idea of “hibernation.” A hibernation also felt by seeds after they give way in the fall.
What are you learning from the seeds? How will you spread generosity this season?
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read moreReader Question – Being green on a budget
Received a question via Tumblr this week:
“Hey there, I really want to start being more green. I do your typical recycling public transit and am vegetarian, but feel that I could do more. Thing is, I’m a college student so money is definitely not bountiful and I live in the city so not much room for gardening other than my little window box and terrariums. Any tips or suggestions for me?”
I get this sentiment a lot from people I talk to. They feel as though just because they don’t have a cozy five-acres off the grid somewhere, then their ability to be green is rather limited. Frankly, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
from Lexicon of Sustainability
The trick is to be conscious of your consumption and waste streams. The less you acquire, the less resources are consumed. The less that is consumed, the less that is wasted and thrown away. The number one key to green is being conscious of the fact that everything came from somewhere and everything has to go somewhere. In between these two destinations is the incredibly brief (by comparison) time that you are in ownership of that item.
Of course, consuming and throwing away things is a part of the world we live in. Even those that live off the grid consume and dispose – they just do it on a scale that is sustainable within the infrastructure they have to work with. Applying the same thinking, no matter what your address is, can do wonders.
So what is a college-student/ urban dweller to do?
Here are a few ideas:
Indoor composting: vermicomposting uses the power of eartworms to break down organic materials into compost. If done properly, it’s hardly noticeable and every few weeks you get compost! Vermicompost kits are for sale all over the place. Some blogs and websites have make-your-own worm-bin designs. Compost Revolution is also doing some pretty cool stuff.
There is always somewhere to garden. Whether it is a collection of buckets in the corner of a parking lot or an empty patch of dirt between the sidewalk and the street. If you have sunlight, soil, and water, you have opportunity to grow. Ask neighbors who have yards for a bit of space and offer them some of the harvest in return. I feel, as a culture, we have reached a point where a public-facing garden isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so long as it is kept up.
Shop the local farmer’s markets. There’s always good deals on fresh, responsible produce. Many are willing to haggle or barter for products. Ride your bike. Bring your own bags. Bring a date and turn them onto shopping local and fresh.
Lastly: ease your addiction to plastics. This is definitely the most challenging, but plastics are in everything and get everywhere. The percentage of plastic that is actually recycled is abysmal (only about %30, according to Recycle Across America), the rest isn’t broken down properly and ends up in the worst imaginable places (like, our food supply) or becomes a nation-sized island in the middle of the Pacific. Plastics are one of those cruel ironies that are cheap enough to be disposable, but durable enough to last forever.
Consider using glass for food storage, buy in bulk when you can, and go out of your way to remove disposable plastics from your life completely.
What are some ways you take the extra step to live greener?
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Taking action against the Secret Farm Bill (which shouldn’t be a secret at all)
Why are we still surprised that politics comes in secret? Yes, we are a “Democratic Republic”, which means we elect representatives to handle most of the decision making, to do most of the research, and to craft bills and laws that will benefit the people they represent. When something can’t be decided on in Washington, it goes to the people in the form of elections.As a result, a lot of what goes on happens in relative secrecy. Bills end up being encyclopedic in length and no one actually wants to review them. Not surprisingly, what the bill is supposed to do and what it actually does end up being two different things.
The farm bill is one of those things that happens under the radar because 1) most citizens wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of it and 2) it has become super-greasy with the hundreds of lobbyist, corporate, and special interest paws that are all over it.
The Farm Bill is, for the most part, pretty important and well-intended. It does, after all, determine what crops and practices will be subsidized. However, in recent decades the bill has become more and more of a machine to allow for the greatest profits in BigAgriculture and the huge food corporations. The Farm Bill is more or less the reason corn and soy is in absolutely everything.
Food authority and writer Michael Pollan (author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both great reads) speaks his mind in this short video.
What can you do? Well, take a few moments to educate yourself. This does, after all, concern your food – the very thing you eat every day. Why not do it right?
Food Month Conclusion
For the month of September I have been looking at the relationship between diet and our sense of levity.
The Harvard version of the USDA "My Plate"
It shouldn’t be a strange idea to me: what you eat determines how you feel. Yet, what you eat has everything to do with how you feel. From the energy you have to your mood down to your general health.
I’ve thought about my own nutrition education when growing up. My parents were decent about not letting me eat too much garbage. In school my science teachers were good about explaining the digestive system and explaining how cells are formed and break down. But there was a gap in between the two schools of thought.
It’s not that I don’t like having a truly healthy diet, I just never learned a lot about it – and I still think I got an alright education. Just ask me about books – I know lots about books.
In the past week and a half, my only meat consumption was a bit of tuna on a burger. I’m starting to think more about the food I eat beyond how it tastes. A huge part of my diet is now vegetables (of course, it helps that the garden is still going gangbusters this late into the season). I can’t say for sure if I’ll ever be ready to divorce meat, but it’ll make for a fun experiment.
I’ll keep you posted.
Highlights from the month in food:
Clearing the Fog – Guest Post from Brittan
Forks Over Knives – a life beyond meat
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Forks Over Knives | Thinking of a life beyond meat
Sharks are pretty shallow
Watched Forks Over Knives this past week. It was a rather sobering experience.
The gist: research has shown that cultures which eat a lot of meat tend to die off from cancers and heart disease at a very increased rate. The experiment? Move patients with cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and a world of other problems onto a whole food, plant based diet.
Forks Over Knives does a good job at what I think every documentary should do: get people thinking, give big ideas and a few resources and inspire change.
Yes, this movie encourages everyone (like, everyone, not just those who are afflicted with recurring diseases) to go on a vegan diet without making it seem like a movie about the vegan agenda. Instead of approaching a meatless diet from the “let’s be nice to animals” side, it instead takes the philosophy from the “let’s be nice to ourselves” argument.
Albeit, with the presence of any documentary there will be scores of nay-sayers and speculation about the accuracy and legitimacy of the facts and arguments presented. Some reviews have even gone so far as to deconstruct all of the evidence presented (it’s a long read. Like, really long). However, I would have never thought that my health could be improved if I were to not have meat at the center of my diet had I not been presented with this idea.
Whether or not they are right, at least it’s a different line of thinking? What’s the harm in trying something different?
So, I’ve tried it – doing the whole “not meat” thing. Beyond a serving of fish, I’ve been pretty good this week. This was, after all, the month Not Quite Hippie discusses the whole “changing diets, changing lives” idea. In just a week, my weight has stayed the same but every pair of pants I have now hangs loose.
Am I off meat forever? Not sure. I think this little sabbatical from the bovine has given me a perspective on what it was I enjoyed so much about meat anyone.
More on that in a later post.
For now, check out the trailer for Forks over Knives.
The movie is available to watch, in full, on Netflix Instant.
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