Action can be a cure for anxiety. Whether you personally feel it or not, it would be hard to make the claim that we live in a world free of fear. School shootings, climate change, social media, you name it, there’s plenty of reasons why anxiety is on the rise. What is happening to our world? What are we doing to our children’s future?
The question is: what can we do? How do we actively work to make this world a safer place for everyone?
It can seem a daunting task, but what if the solutions were actually relatively simple? What if we could make significant change simply by making different choices at the grocery store? By riding bikes more?
Santa Cruzers are no strangers to organic farming. We have an abundance of organic farms, farmers’ markets, natural foods stores, organic farming advocates and more. This is part of why we live in this beautiful beach town nestled against the mountains with redwood forests. People care about environmental ethics. We are one of the world’s great centers of organic farming. We are also currently in the middle of Ecology Action’s Bike to Work Monthand seeing so many folks commuting on two wheels is heartwarming.
What about the expense of living in Santa Cruz? It can be very challenging to make ends meet in this town, and isn’t choosing organic just making it harder to afford?
In an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle today, “Eating organic can help reduce the high cost of cheap food,” Bob Quinnand Liz Carlisle make the case that there is actually a much higher price to pay for cheaper food. They point to the environmental and social cost of using “pesticides, which pollute rural water supplies and have been linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, asthma, and Parkinson’s.”
Additionally, organic farming has a net positive result on the environment. They state that “organic soil health strategies such as longer crop rotations and regenerative grazing show great promise for sequestering carbon, which can help mitigate climate change.”
So, if you want to do something, if you want to take action, then think about choosing organic and advocating on behalf of organic farmers. Next week, these two authors will present their book Grain by Grain at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn at 6pm on May 14th. Seeing them present their research might just be the motivation you need to take an active stance in support of organic farming.