mind body planet

Cooperative Market

So today since I am down to just one or two more days here at the community house, I am going to talk a little bit about Ithaca and what sorts of ways this little college town is making same amazing strides in the fight against ecological degradation. The people of this little community from the college to the surrounding areas, are all quite obviously devoted to creating and maintaining something quite special in their town. With the farmer’s market I talked about yesterday I saw what I can imagine to be the goal of any market and any community around the world. We are all trying to make this world a better place and make it so that the beauty around us is protected. It seems that the people of Ithaca, surrounded by their famous gorges and waterfalls, are constantly reminded about the power and beauty of nature. Thus this sense of natural awareness demands of them a certain level of respect and responsibility to take care of what is around them.

One such idea is all over the area of Ithaca , and that is the cooperative community or business. A cooperative organization, or co-Op, is basically an organization that is maintained and owned by those who work within the established place. One great example of this is the grocery store that I went in to today. This store was owned by ever single person that worked there. That means that all forty or fifty people that you could see stocking shelves or cutting meat, was an owner of this business. That means money coming in to the store goes right back in to the community and not to a company headquarters or something like that. It also means that they are much more responsive to the needs and desires of their customers. Inside this store there were bulk herbs and spices, and bulk grains all along the walls. Most of the coffees , and many of the products, were fair-trade and Organic. Then there were a huge number of locally produced goods. Anything from yogurt to toilet paper made by local people could be bought and sold there. This freedom to choose what goes on is something that you do not find with a large company who sells all over the country or the world.

Another aspect of the same idea is something here called the eco-village. The eco-village is a place outside of town which is owned and operated by it’s inhabitants. They are also a zero waste community and they do much to help with eco-actions around the community at large.

My time is up for the day folks and so I will leave you with lingering visions of this utopia I have painted for you up here in Ithaca.

Organics(2)

As I promised, I am back today to talk a little bit more about how a person such as myself can survive on an Organic and local diet on a students’ budget. I am here to tell you people that though the statistics are stacked against you, the opportunities are all right there in front of you to take advantage of. Even though I was raised in an environment where I have been buying these types of foods all of my life, I still had to learn how to buy foods and how to budget in a place away from home like this and it was nothing short of difficult.

For me the biggest key to making the transition to an entirely local and Organic diet is to remember that it is just that. We are trying to save the world and make ourselves much healthier as soon as possible, but we can’t do it all in one day. I am quite radical compared to many of my close friends when it comes to this and I still this that it is always a process of growth and inclusion. If your personal budget doesn’t allow you to make the entire cart beam with Organic beauty, then don’t worry about it. IF you can go to the farmer’s market and get what you need and only supplement some things from the grocery store, that is better than most. I think that when you get in to the habit of feeling guilty for not being a complete Organic or completely local foods shopper, then you are just hurting yourself and those you come in contact with. Just stay positive about it. It is all a long process like anything else in life.

On a more practical and individual level, there are some things to pay attention to when you are forced to make these decisions. Some foods are basically the same when they are Organic and when they are conventional. Some foods like grapes and apples just drink up and retain pesticides until you digest them. Foods like these are the ones you want to never compromise on if you are dedicated because these are the ones that are causing the most damage. Then there are foods that are much better not purchased at all if you are concerned with local foods issues. Many of the fruits that we buy are not from this country, or they are from the other side of the country. If you live on the east coast and get oranges from California, you are burning something like a gallon of gas for that one orange to get to your hands. To me that seems absurd when I can grow strawberries or blueberries around here and be just fine.

It surely is a huge issue when you really get down to the nitty gritty like this, but in the end it is all about your own personal battles and priorities. IF you are driven crazy by the energy wasted in this country around or food transportation scheme, then locals are for you. If you are more worried about what is going in to your body when you bite in to that mutated corn then Organics may be your route. Like I said, it all depends on what is most important to you in your food choices.

I am lucky enough that the college I have chosen is right in the middle of a nice farm belt.  There aren’t too many of them that are interested in local foods movements and Organic growing.  Most of the farmers are much more traditional in their loyalties and in their own corporate sponsorships.  Around here though there are a nice selection of farms that specialize in such progressive and sustainable farming.  Because of these farms there is also an almost daily selection of farmer’s markets around if you have a way to get their and mouths to feed. I usually go to a farmer’s market five days out of the week with the exception of wednesdays and sundays which are apparently rest days for the farmers to maintain work back at the farm and rest a little bit.  These farmer’s markets are not only relics of a past economic structure that we had in this country and others still have today, but they are a sign of growing acceptance of the fact that we need to be stewards and not only consumers.

Many farms around here also participate in programs known as CSA’s for short.  These programs are called community supported Agriculture and within the last decade or so they have been blowing up in popularity and sheer numbers.  Basically what a CSA is is a way for the farmer to get community support for their farm while the people paying get seasonal food that was picked that day fresh.  Every January these farms start taking money and make up a big list that they limit to make sure everyone is going to get what they pay for. Then they take that money and invest it in the basics of the farm and the whole things cycles back around. I don’t know personally, but I would imagine that in a system like this the farmer’s are not making that much money, but really they are doing something that is so much more important than that. By setting up a system like this they are essentially bringing all of the economic growth and support that would have gone to already prolific farmers in areas like California or Florida and bringing it back to our town.  This also helps us to minimize how much energy is being expended to get us our food.  Instead of flying strawberries from across the country, I get about ten pounds of them in the early summer. 

Today is Tuesday and in this context this is like the perfect storm of a day for my style of food.  On this day I have a farmer’s market a block from my apartment and I pick up my CSA about three blocks past that.  Today I came home with corn, blueberries, lettuces, potatoes, and onions.  All of the food is so fresh and delicious that it makes dishes taste totally different that if I were to make them with even Organic grocery store foods. This is the aesthetic payoff of the local foods movement, but the implication are much larger than that. These are just two of the more practical support structures that most people can access on a daily basis for making change in the world around them. Go out and find one or both of these today and make your difference. 

I would like to start of my blogging career by just giving an overview of the kinds of things I will discuss on here as well as a little bit of a background on myself. This will be my first blog ever and I will surely hit some snags along the way and run out of things to say eventually, but right now I have plenty of things to spout about. I hope that in all of my ramblings, that I can educate those who are seeking, discuss with those who are learning, and learn from those who are willing. This is my goal, and this is my blog.

My life has always been sort of steeped in the world of the natural way of living you could say. I have only recently had to begin calling my way of life “natural” because people like labels and we can’t deny ourselves that. Since I was a young child in our home, the primary methods of medicine were yoga, and herbs. I have only begun using supplements on my own periodically when I feel that my body could really use something that plants cannot provide in a quick enough time frame. I grew up in a home where there was little to no exposure to television and much of my free time was spent gardening in the summer and reading in the colder months.

Now that I have reached collage age and I am being forced to live in the way that everyone else here must, I have had to make some adjustments to the way in which I live to cope with a reduced amount of natural surroundings to use at my disposal. This has forced me in to the world of local foods and ,at times when I can’t get things at farmer’s markets, organics foods at the grocery store. I look at the way I am living my life right now as sort of a model with which a person can function on a sustainable and natural way of life, even while caught in the grips of faster paced living conditions. I have been walking the path of eco friendly living forever, but now I am out there in the big world with everyone else, just trying to do my part to help with the mess around us.

At this point in my life I have been a yoga teacher, a professional musician, an amateur music therapist, and a farmer. My mother and father were both practitioners of qigong and Reiki. The background that I bring to the table should provide readers and discussers with something interesting at times, and something that they may disagree with at other times. That is the wonderful part of this path. There are so many routes to take and every one is just as valid if they work for you.

I hope that I have given everyone a good taste of what is to come and what may be discussed on here. If anyone has anything that they would like me to bring up, please don’t hesitate to stop me and just ask how I feel or tell me how you feel on something that interests you. Here’s to a wonderful time from here on out. Salute!