Where are the Edges?

Before I get started, I have to say the coffee I'm drinking at Open Spaces today might be the best name for coffee I've ever seen its Squirrel Rhapsody by the local roasters Marigold Coffee. Oh and its tasty too!

watch this video to get an idea of what this post might be about

Well, its almost been a month since I wrapped up the challenge in a not so nice and neat little package, and I am finding that the challenge has finally begun. It was so easy, actually, when I had these semi-clear guidelines, but now that it is really integrated into my life, my choice are so much more thoughtful.

Let's be clear... I've dabbled in some packaged foods. I had a pint of Peanut butter ZigZag (maybe my all time fav of vegan ice cream). It was fantastic. I savoured every creamy, chunky chocolate, frozen peanut butter bite! I've had samples at work that include chips and packaged salsa. I had a bottle of Sessions (that one was disappointing, but it did hit the spot as I was heading into the downside of a very very long shift). Then there is wine. Red wine to be exact. I did not realize how much I was going to miss this until I finally had a glass of Pacific Redwood Pinot. What a nice wine.

Then a group of us went to Seattle for our friend Sage's birthday. I had just finished a bout with food poisoning of some bizzarro nature, so I didn't drink too much. But we did get some 360 vodka, some gin, and there was some really great tonic called Q Tonic. I juiced some very very large Mellon Gold Grapefruits and played bartender.

The next day, we walked up to the Sidecar For Pigs Peace. Its a store for Pigs Peace Sanctuary. Its a place I like to support, but just have such a hard time. Like most all vegan stores (like there are so many), it is just packed full with packaged foods. Last time I picked up a t-shirt, but I really didn't need another shirt, or book (just purchased 3 more from Left-Bank Books the day before), so I picked up a little bottle of wine form the Naked Winery. It was a tasty treat as well.

That's pretty much it... I have purchased a bottle of Dijon mustard and vegan worshester sauce for a vegan Cesar Dressing mix so that my housemate, that is allergic to nuts, could actually eat this salad at a dinner party he was throwing for his son.

What has been brought to my full and upright attention, is fucking GMO.... and yes that is the appropriate f-word for them. Being back into the frey of possibly eating packaged food, I am reminded of the ambiguity of what is in our food. For a year I was focused on what my food is IN because I am really concerned about what is IN my food. The more I learn about what other countries are doing to try and keep GMOs from their food supply, the more angry I get at... at what and whom is more confusing.

I start with Monsanto... the evil fucking empire of the genetic seed world. Then I move to our government that has allowed them to run amok with, not just "our" food supply, but the supply of the world. Then I get mad at the farmers who caved to them and their seed deals (this only lasts for a split second as I remember my youth and what the farmers were facing at the time), then back to Monsanto. At some point to moves to the Marking teams that sold the US on the idea that this would create abundance for a starving planet (remember the famine in Ethiopia in the 80s). Then I get pissed at the American consumer who wanted cheap food and did not question the tasteless tomato in January. Who didn't question why, if this new super wheat was suppose to feed the world, we let it rot in the silos. Or why so much of the grains being grown wasn't for human consumption, but to feed animals (poorly) that could have fed many more people if that grain was grown for consumption by people.

Last week, my lovely farming housemates talked me into going to the monthly event called InFARMation. Its put on by Friends of Family Farms. The conversation was focused on GMOs and featured 2 farmers and the person who wrote the book Food Fray. I learned a great deal about what local farmers are facing, and I plan to write more on the gravity of GMOs especially in the Willamette Valley, but right now I want to talk about consumer responsibility (psst it is democracy in action).

I learned that one of the key things keeping the Wheat in Oregon and Washington, if not organic at least not GMO, is that Japan is one of biggest buyers (i.e. they spend the most money) of  our wheat and they do not, or have not allowed GMOs into their country that is a little island. This is changing however, because they are now allowing GMO papaya this year, and so there is fear that this could lead to them allowing further GMOs in. And in the wake of their really bad year last year with a tsunami and nuclear meltdown...

So I'm not angry with Japan for opening up to GMO, (sad but not angry), I'm pissed to no end that it is other countries' money that is keeping our wheat organic and not us! Size wise we are a very massive county, and we can not save our own food supply! Why are we so complacent? This is what makes me so....MAD that I can't even think of a word, curse or otherwise, that describes my level of anger that is so high it makes me soooo sad. Is there a word for that emotion? Anger so large that creates sadness? Or is it sadness mixed with hopeless despair that I creates an anger so deep?....

Well of that I don't know, but I might have found some answers in what I've been reading and listening to these days. First, a podcast/radio show called ON Being. I think I mentioned it before. And because of it I've been reading Beauty by John O'Donohue. And I believe that beauty may be our greatest "weapon" against despair, violence, glamour, and meritocracy. But even more so was an interview of Tim DeChristopher in Orion magazine.

At the beginning of the interview they talk about something Breyten Breytenbach who said, " You Americans, you've mastered the art of living with the unacceptable." And I believe it is true. We, as Americans have spent decades accepting what is unacceptable by most sane people that are interested in long term survival of ALL. Not short term gratification that brings us a very false sense of security. When Breyten (who spent time in prison in South Africa while fighting the apartheid) was asked what to do, he responded with, "Support people on the margins."

Tim's story essentially supports this (Tim's and all the other political prisoners in this country that have wrestled up the courage to fight the corporate power structure that is our government to free the animals, wilderness, and people that are oppressed by capitalism). The one very clear thing I remember learning in the Permaculture course I took was that change happens on the edges, on the margins, where things are bluring together. The forest doesn't just suddenly become meadow. You don't take one small step out of the tall grass prairie and suddenly stumble onto the desert.

We need to know what we stand for, not what we stand against. Then we need to find the very edge, not the center of compromise, and push in. We need to make people a little uncomfortable. Not the kind of uncomfortable that makes them shut down, but the kind that makes them think, feel, and act.

Can we get people to see past the glamour and shininess of the media machines to see the beauty of simple? That maybe a walk with friends and family just might be much more beautiful than watching TV on a big screen with surround sound speakers.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having nice things, but I am saying that it is difficult to see the mountains, sunset, birds, clouds, when we are vegged out. That I have never made any changes in my life while I was comfortably seated on the throne of complacency and entitled privilege.

What do you care about? What will makes you want to take action? Nothing will change as long as we are complacent... tolerant.... passive.... everyday acts are important and just as vital as direct action in the streets. I do understand the personal dangers of going against the stream. The looks that "friends" give when you do something  counter to the status quo. Those risks are the first steps to facing down the powers of Monsanto, Nestle, Fox, political parties that like to keep us divided, the marking teams that tell us we will be sexy if we use their products. I've got some news for you... Sexy is knowing who you are and what you stand FOR.