Ronnie Cummins: Organics, Health, & Climate Chaos - What Will We Tell the Children?

Organics, Health, & Climate Chaos (Part I)
What Will We Tell the Children?
By Ronnie Cummins
My Daily Bytes, Feb. 17, 2006

Quote of the Day:

"We have actually entered a new era - the era of dangerous climate change. We have already reached the point where our children can no longer count on a safe climate. We have very little time to act now. Governments must stop talking and start spending. We already have the technology to allow us to meet our growing need for energy while keeping a stable climate. We must deploy it now. Doing so will cost less than the Iraq war so we know we can afford it." Tom Burke, former UK government adviser, now visiting professor at Imperial College London, The Independent/UK, February 11, 2006 http://www.organicconsumers.org/politics/globwarm021306.cfm

One of the major strengths of the growing international organic movement is that we are a positive movement. Organic consumers and farmers don't just talk about what's wrong with our self-destructive food and farming system, and the non-sustainability of global commerce; we do something about it everyday. We don't just sit around complaining about out-of-control corporations and politicians trying to force-feed us and our kids junk food, tasteless industrial food, or genetically engineered "Frankenfooods." In a certain sense many of us feel like we have moved "beyond politics, " that we don't need the permission or support of corrupt politicians or government regulators to change our diets or shopping habits. We vote with our consumer dollars. We talk to our friends and family. We take action in our kitchens, on our farms, and in our backyard gardens. We patronize progressive restaurants, retailers, farmers markets, and coffee shops. We shop for green products whenever possible. To the extent that we are able to walk our talk and nurture our families and ourselves we feel empowered. And walking our talk together, millions of organic consumers have developed tremendous clout in the marketplace. Today in the United States, ten cents of every grocery store dollar ($45 billion annually) is being spent on products labeled as organic or natural, and the market for healthier and more sustainable food and consumer items is growing rapidly‹20% or more per year.

Despite these positive signs of a Great Awakening surrounding health and organics, we live in dangerous and frightening times. Our health, food, water, and climate are under relentless assault by a money-obsessed corporate elite that apparently can't tell the difference between a "suicide economy," as Vandana Shiva describes it, and business as usual. http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/shiva060704.cfm

Most of the time, most of us keep our spirits up, by repressing the bad news. We try to avoid talking about the scary stuff too much, especially around our young children or grandchildren. But lately the daily warnings are harder and harder to ignore: greenhouse gas pollution and climate disruption; alarming studies of polar ice caps and glaciers melting; reports that oil production has peaked or will soon peak and that a profound energy crisis will soon set in, spawning, among other things, endless "Blood for Oil" conflicts such as the current bloodbath in Iraq; increasingly destructive hurricanes such as Katrina and forest fires; wild weather fluctuations; killer droughts; tropical diseases spreading. See the Climate Crisis Coalition Daily Newsfeed at:

http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org

As today's "quote of the day" chillingly points out "we have already reached the point where our children can no longer count on a safe climate." Despite our best intentions, it's hard to keep a positive outlook. Things slip out, even in front of the children. The other day my eight year-old asked me in
an unusually serious voice, "Daddy, what are we going to do
when the oil runs out?" I paused for a minute. "Well, you know it won't be so bad. We'll all get to ride horses and donkeys and ride our bikes everyday."

Increased market share for organic, Fair Trade, and green products in an era of endless war and climate chaos will provide little consolation. In these tumultuous and frightening times, we are literally in a race against time to turn our nation and the global community toward health, justice, peace, and sustainability. This turning will likely require nothing short of a Second American Revolution, carried out on a global scale. Stay tuned to my "Biodemocracy Bytes" for some ideas on what we, the global organic community, are doing, and more importantly what we can do, to deal with the Crisis.