"Nurture the food systems that will take care of all (with your fork and dollar)"
Here's what happens: a systemic pesticide is imbued in monoculture agriculture and/or genetically modified seeds.
The name: many call it Colony Collapse Disorder; in France they called it the Mad Bee Disease
Videos were made around sunflower fields and corn fields. When the bees came in contact with plants under systemic pesticides, they eventually become disorientated and confused, and may simply fall from the flower. Some bees are so severely effected that they can not make it back to their hive. If they do, the pollen they bring into the hive is polluted, tainted, a harm to the rest of the colony.
This is an epidemic; an illness and dis-ease! The attacks on the bees' nervous systems and circuit systems, which disrupted their ability to function properly, and ultimately killed millions of bees. If an attack on the human body was interfering with our immune system and our ability to learn, on a massive scale, would we let it happen?
Note: bees observed around organic sunflowers behaved in a natural order, deliberate and calm inside the flowers.
Bee problems began in 1994, coincidentally when farmers started using the systemic pesticide Gaucho by Bayer. French beekeepers took to the streets in demonstration. They fought with their expression, together.
To quote Henri Clement, UNAF President, "at first we surprised Bayer.. because they thought beekeepers were inconsequential farmers and hippies that could never organize."
Well they united hired a lawyer and sued.
Ultimately, the French Minister of Agriculture, Jean Glavany, banned the Gaucho on sunflowers and corn. He was quoted saying, we suspended the use of Gaucho because it is our job to protect the environment."
And the United States continued in ignorance ten years after the events.
When bees began vanishing in 2005, our government did nothing.
Farmers from the states flew to France to see if they could get the scientific studies that were done so they could use it. The problem was relational. The difference between time and affect could not give enough "proof" to the American beekeepers in their fight against the epidemic.
The irony is, of course, that nature is telling us. "Very often traditional knowledge gets there before science" says Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of our Food, and professor at UC Berkely. As with one of the major issues and themes within our Industrial Era, is that the human brain wants to declare its omniscience. That we, the huMans, know better. But how much ignorance and closed mindedness to nature and the ecological checks and balances, must we dump on the earth, before we start to listen once more to mother knowledge?
All monocultures are unsustainable and unnatural. The more we separate ecosystems into their disembodied parts, the worse it will get.
Some questions that came up: Why do we continue this? They say 95% of the food in America is treated with pesticides. Is this really true?
What is the percentage of land that is a monoculture? in the North America; South America and onward>
Why do we take illness so lightly?
To bring Robert Kull into this, I think perhaps he struggled so deeply with himself out in Chile was precisely because he was sick. Illness in the psyche, body, spirit, soul, nervous system, cellular system, chi, environment, etc. If they are not addressed-- meaning looked at, sat with, and truly embodied and accepted, then what hope do we have for the human race?
How can modern farming live in harmony with the environment?
How can nonviolence live in harmony with the violence in the world?
How can we work at our Bodhisattva nature while consciously knowing that oppositional forces exist? Is it arbitrary?
If nature works itself out and as Kull writes, that perhaps our role as humans is to self-realize the natural world, then harmony can be attained. Or am I just an idealist.
A personal note: When I am in this place we call "nature", I tap into an informational system, not much different to a phone call. When we dial in, we connect with the ones we love. Through antennas and wave-lengths we are talking to someone, or something, that may not be visible to the individual eye. But that is not to say that the person we are talking to on the phone does not exist, we talk through a medium. So then why is it so hard for us to know and hear the conversations that can be with the natural world.
Kull writes, "I was seeing the sound of rain." p. 248
also, p. 250 Kull explains to those who look for messages and lessons from nature (such as I) that there a number of realities that cannot be overlooked.
1. "A romantic vision of idyllic harmony and cooperation in nature is as misguided as an exclusive focus on competition."
the Ying AND Yang. Solitude AND Community. Peace AND War. Dualism is essential to this physical world.
2. "Aggression/competition can be so extreme that it is self-defeating."
Some animals (us included) focus and expend so much energy for combat and mating, to the extent that energy expended on so much more is overlooked. Animals, obviously also expand quite a bit of energy on consumption. We are probably the best example of such gluttony.
3. 'Patience pays off"
Is that true with everything? What about the critical moments of action that must be taken, when one can no longer rely on patience for the pay off? Revolutions, protests, fighting, standing up for something.
The duality of action and rest, was overlooked by Kull here.
Lastly I'd like to leave with one more quote from Kull, "the only way to be free from the hustle is to give up trying to create a solid self or solid social presence. This doesn't mean we disappear or stop being active, only that we can relax and let ourselves do whatever comes naturally without worrying about results."
...for the ego, this can be a truly scary idea."
and yet it still continues...
Some people and books to look into for ENV knowledge: Michael Pollan In Defense of Food
Simon Buxtan Shamanic Way of the Bee
Maryann Fraizier http://ento.psu.edu/directory/mxt15
No comments:
Post a Comment