Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic - Anna Getty [3]
These days our food and everything else we buy is just one click away. Sometimes I catch myself looking at my daughter, wondering what kind of world she will inherit and how she will relate to it. She is four years old and already perceives a cell phone as an integral part of her everyday life experience, merely because her parents give it so much attention. Does she think trees are as important? Or insects? For that reason and others, we spend time with her in the garden observing the bees, planting herbs, or watching a spider. She helps make dinner sometimes and we ask her to take the kitchen scraps to the composter so that she’ll recognize some part of the cycle of life. I have high hopes and aspirations for her, but more than anything I would like for her to have respect for Mother Earth and her many gifts.
I would love to snap my fingers and magically find myself on an organic farm, growing my own fruits and vegetables and raising my chickens for eggs, and then snap my fingers again and be back in the city fulfilling my responsibilities here. Perhaps one day finding the best of both worlds will not entail magic and teleportation. In the meantime, I can make micro changes to my city life that I know will help improve the environment. I do the obvious green things, like recycling, buying locally grown and seasonal foods from local farmers’ markets, composting, turning off lights in empty rooms, using cloth bags when I shop, and growing an organic herb garden. But the question I ask every day is, “What is one more small thing I can do in order to make a bigger difference?” I’ve learned that it need not be drastic. Every step, I believe, matters.
I am oft en asked, “How do I make the switch, it seems so intimidating?” or “Does organic really make a difference to my family’s health?” and “Does my lifestyle really affect the environment?” You may be asking yourself these very questions right now. This book will provide some answers to those questions and at the very least, help you take a step in the right direction.
Going green and organic is easier than you think; it’s about taking small steps that are manageable for you and fit into your everyday life. And, undoubtedly, green and organic habits go hand-in-hand; you really can’t have one without the other. If one is making the conscious choice to eat organic food, one is making a green choice. If you choose to drive a greener car, you will probably find it rather difficult to drive that hybrid while continuing to eat foods that are laden with chemicals and strain natural resources.
“Green,” “organic,” and “sustainable” are now part of our everyday lexicon, and it’s only a matter of time before they describe the way we all live. Being green is not just for hippies and New Agers, and going organic is no longer only for the privileged. Before the invention of refrigerated freight cars and cargo holds, everyone ate organic locally grown food. Let’s do our best to get back to that way of life.
The kitchen is a great place to start. It is the hub of our homes, where the action takes place. It is where most products enter our homes, and where the largest amounts of waste leave them. Let the kitchen be the springboard for this green and organic path we will be following in this book, one step at a time.
what is sustainable farming?
Sustainable farming is essential to preserving our natural resources for future generations. It involves using environmentally sound practices while trying to ensure the economic viability of farmers and their workers. As the U.S. Department of Agriculture notes, the term addresses economic, philosophical, political, and social issues that have emerged in light of the harmful practices of conventional, large-scale farming during