Produce

A better world than the one that presently exists is possible; in some ways a better one has already existed. As a kid living in Greenfield I remember the produce man coming around in a truck hollering "Fruits and Vegetables!" or "Vegetable man!" or something like that. You could buy groceries fresh picked from farms nearby. Local farms were the only farms you could buy from. Our present system, in which massive amounts of fossil fuels are burned to carry food grown in all parts of the world to be sold in all parts of the world, is based on very poor short-term business strategy. The disruption of the climate is only one part of Earth's ecosystem which is being harmed by our addiction to Big Ag and Big Energy rather than small local food production and distributed power. The pollutants from transportation combustion processes MUST be curtailed, drastically and quickly.

Productive intellectual work in this time of great change includes considering the possible advantages of making changes that actually go back in time to the way some things were done in "the good old days" (not that those days were necessarily all that great as a whole).

The Hazelwood Initiative committee called Small Food Vendors in Hazelwood has the goal of increasing affordable access to healthier food for residents while providing income, training and experience in the food industry. Several committee members are working on plans to start their own small businesses selling fresh unprocessed and/or prepared foods such as soup and sandwiches off of trucks, along with delivering food.

Beginning this summer, fresh locally-grown produce, locally grown herbs (both whole plants in pots and cuttings) and various home-cooked specialties and baked delicacies will be available via outdoor stands on Second Avenue. Loss of funding all over the Pittsburgh area for the farmstand program is being ameliorated by new creative efforts via the YMCA's garden program and others to take up the slack. Local individuals and groups able to grow and/or prepare healthy foods for local sale will be welcomed. I will be offering cut herbs, potted herb plants, and unusual easy to grow wild edibles such as purslane and lambs quarters free to try - part of my effort to get more people to recognize how we can all grow at least a little of our own healthy food. Drop off any plant pots at Everyone's Garden at the corner of W. Elizabeth and Lytle Streets to donate to the effort. Our many-years goal of establishing a farmers market in Hazelwood is taking another step forward.

A much better world is possible by playing one's part in the community of life. A re-defining of what it means to be productive is taking place. Right now we only have an ice cream truck that spreads the sweet but short rush of a sugar high to our residents. We can and will do better. Sweet is not the only good taste. In fact, the different kinds of sugars in all fruits and many vegetables, naturally grown, can re-ignite a complexity of food tastes we have forgotten. Sugars are all made by nature, but our refining and concentrating them - throwing out the enzymes, minerals, and vitamins from the sugar cane, sugar beet, and corn plants - is causing much of the poor health we are suffering from.

A new understanding of the need to nourish the community of life at the level of the soil is also yielding a much-needed paradigm shift in our transitioning to a more sustainable world. A garden will not produce a healthy crop of plants for beauty, food, and medicine if the ground is not replenished with organic matter. So we need to set up neighborhood recycling of organic wastes to the soil. The Earth cannot produce if we do not feed it.

Jim McCue 412-421-6496 appropriatebiotech@yahoo.com