>Richard wrote:
>>I do enjoy the ideas around sustainable living, because they provide a
>>constructive path for withdrawing energies from that world of politics, and
>>destruction to investing it more locally. It enables me or you to do
>>something of a healing nature for ourselves and the planet.
>
>Yes, i think this approach has two benefits:
> 1. It provides a path for enjoying life.
> 2. It produces results directly. (no political promises or
> laws or organizations that can fail).
>
>The most popular approach today seem to be activism and
>momentary supporters. We tend to write checks to our favorite
>cause and then feel good about doing something. The problem
>with this approach is it does not build lasting cultural
>solutions. Mostly it just struggles with individual problems
>and the basic culture remains unchanged. This doesn't mean
>we don't need "causes", just that we need a balance of people
>living the answers and those struggling with the problems.
>Today we seem to be out of balance. More check writers than
>ecopath's.
>
>jeff
Trouble is sometimes you find yourself in a political fight for
people to be allowed to live the answers. I've spent my whole spring
and summer in meetings with bureaucrats to try and fix it so that the
people who grow and eat organic food in Ireland are the ones who
decide what gets labelled organic in the shops instead of bureaucrats
- and its all very well saying people can buy from their local
producer whatever the government says the food should be called but
there are so many people who would never eat organic if it wasn't in
their local shop and so many producers who don't have the extra time
and energy and staff to organise a csa - at the end of a day farming
you maybe don't feel up to spending the evening organising.
I'm sick today or I would be in a government office again, fighting
the last few rounds (we are winning on points at the moment). The
garden has become a wilderness. I could just sit here and self
suffice - we've done it before, we can do it again. But I'm
knowledgeable, experienced, and a good negotiator. Would I really be
right to sit at home?
kathryn
