FOOD = “to tend, keep, pasture, to protect, to guard, to feed”
CRISIS = “to separate, decide, judge, discriminate, distinguish, to sift”
SPIRIT = “animating or vital principle, soul, courage, vigor, breath”
It’s estimated that one billion people on the earth are starving and many are farmers. Farmers starving? How in the hell…
Take a typical independent farmer, let them do what they know how to do—use their human spirit to relate to the good earth—and they’re the best fed people on the planet. The crisis—what we need to separate out and make decisions about—is caused by not letting them do what they know how to do—letting multinational corporations that specialize in industrial agriculture supplant their efforts—provide food that’s of less nutritional value but is much cheaper than what the farmer can raise on their own. Also make sure that various multinationals control the seeds the farmer can get their hands on, making sure the seeds can only be used for one crop then have to be bought again—see Monsanto: Seed Police, The Bad Seed, and Harvest of Fear. The farmer can’t afford to buy new seed and they risk legal entanglement if they reuse the seed. And, if they try to use their own non-genetically-modified seed they’re pressured so much they can’t sell their healthy food and they can’t even grow it to feed themselves. If you doubt that a small town or village farmer can be pressured into not growing food from healthy seed just think about those multinationals and all the money they have. Do you think they mind paying some of those farmers to spy on other farmers?
So, the farmers are starving unless they buckle-under to the pressure from agri-business that seems to not use the human spirit in their mix of business factors. Then, the people who used to eat the healthy food the farmers grew have to settle for genetically-modified and less nutritious food—if the farmer used the “approved” seed or if the particular government lets food aid (also less than wholly nutritious) actually arrive at their table (if they even have a table…).
If you’ve gotten this far in the post and you’re starting to get bored about the one billion fellow human beings who are being starved by corporate greed, I suggest you review your commitment to the basics of the human spirit—love, harmony, sympathy, service, and compassion—as well as catching up on the concept of the Oneness of Humanity—the fact that what hurts one, hurts all… sooner or later…
Thankfully, there are some companies that do all in their power to resist the pressure from the spiritless corporations, grow fully nutritious food, and not only make it available to affluent people but install procedures that implement microfranchising so the poor can benefit as well. Check out Nuriche as one example.
Then, there are organizations like Yes! that do everything in their power to help us all build a more sustainable world.
Look into their special Spring 2009 theme: Food for Everyone: How to Grow A Local Food Revolution. Plenty of advice that ordinary people can use to make a major contribution to the global food crisis.
So…
FOOD = something we all need in a form that supplies us with the nutrition we must have to function effectively.
CRISIS = a time to make decisions, separate out the truth from the propaganda, and make a personal judgement to take some kind of positive action.
SPIRIT = what we all have and some need to dust off and shine up so our human family can get back on its feet and live in peace and tranquility…
Spiritual Quote:
“A new economic order can be founded only on an unshakable conviction of the oneness of mankind. Discussions aimed at solving problems related to extreme poverty based on the premise that we are one human family rapidly expand beyond the current vocabulary of economics. They demand a wider context, one which anticipates the emergence of a global system of relationships resting on the principles of equity and justice.”
Bahá’í International Community: 1993 Feb 12 Human Rights and Extreme Poverty
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indeed this is a time of turmoil and faith. One has to be strong to stay strong … to stay true.
Thank you, so much, for responding to this post!
Staying strong…
Yes!
No matter what…
Because we all depend on each other and a broken link in the chain weakens All of Us…
Over perceived human time, diverse views and interpretations are presented about what is desirable. When a person is unable or unwilling to look beyond such interpretations, that person does not recognize the reality the words are highlighting. As words are only abstract, they point beyond what you readily see or register. Its about learning to read between teh lines and beyond them, not simply taking everything at face value.