Now that we have a teachable moment

As a long time activist in the garbage-into-gold movement and the founder and first (and, as far as I know, only) official member of IGPU - The International Garbage Pickers Union - I have regretfully come to the conclusion that we humans (self included) very often remain stuck-on-stupid unless we're scared out of our fucking minds. Well, if you ain't skeered right now with all the things going on in the world, you jist ain't payin attention. So I guess this is a teachable moment. Try this:
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From Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo 1867
A Sewer is a Mistake
compostingtoilet.com/LITRACK/vic_hugo.pdf
Paris throws five million a year into the sea...Without thinking about it...There is no guano comparable in fertility to the detritus of a capital. A great city is the most powerful of dung producers...At great expense, we...gather up at the South Pole the droppings of petrels and penguins, and the incalculable element of wealth that we have at hand we send to the sea. All the human and animal manure that the world loses, if restored to the land instead of being thrown into the water, would suffice to nourish the world...This garbage...is the flowering meadow...the green grass...marjoram and thyme and sage...game...cattle...the satisfied lowing of huge oxen in the evening...perfumed hay...golden wheat...bread on your table...joy...life. So wills that mysterious creation, transformation on earth and transfiguration in heaven...The nutrition of the plains make the nourishment of men. You have the power to throw away this wealth, and to think me ridiculous into the bargain. That will be the crowning glory of your ignorance…The present system does harm in attempting to do good. The intention is good, the result is sad. Men think they are purging the city; they are emaciating the population...A sewer is a mistake.
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foodshedplanet.com/2008/08/urban-gleaning.html
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From:
Food Banks Finding Aid in Bounty of Backyard
by Patricia Leigh Brown 9/13/8
nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/14harvest.html?scp=1&sq=fruit jcc&st=cse
...“Farmers markets are great for those who can afford to spend $2 on a peach,” said Aviva Furman, 54, whose year-old Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle also offers canning and pruning classes. “But a huge percentage of Americans can’t afford the two cups of fruit a day recommended by the government.”

The concept of gleaning, or collecting a portion of crops on farmers’ fields for the needy, before or after harvesting, goes back to ancient cultures. But it has more recently been taken up by people like Joni Diserens, a 43-year-old program manager for Hewlett-Packard and founder of Village Harvest in Silicon Valley. Ms. Diserens uses sophisticated databases and remote telephone answering systems to track the group’s 700 or so volunteers, 40 receiving organizations, 1,000 fruit-inundated homeowners and, on a recent Tuesday, 780 sticky pounds of French prunes...

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