I would respond to the prompt, but I’m having a hard time connecting with it so I’ll just ramble on about other things…[one note about the prompt though–I like Berry’s line about being joyful although you’ve considered the facts b/c I find myself feeling super pessimistic about the Institution that is “Middlebury College”, and yet there are many joys that come along with being a part of this community]
…
One of my best friends and I always talk about the (approaching) apocalypse. We can never trace how we get there, but this happens quite frequently and we’ve stayed up many nights talking about our impending doom. We’ve decided that I would be a good shelter-maker and occasional resource gatherer while she would serve as the force of protection, unafraid to kill to survive.
I realize this doesn’t seem relevant at all to food, but, one of the conclusions that my friend and I have come to is that we need to learn about food and water now if we’re going to have hope for surviving the apocalypse. If I’m being wholly truthful, this is a small reason why I decided FoodWorks would be a great way to spend my summer–I’d learn skills invaluable in the post-apocalyptic world.
Something about these exchanges that my friend and I share seems significant–we really should know about the food system, and how it all works and where it comes from–regardless of whether or not the apocalypse is nigh. I’ve been realizing in these last two weeks that I don’t know anything. And a huge portion of us (read: people) don’t know anything. We’ve stopped teaching every kid where her food comes from and how it’s made, and have grown much further from the Earth. And while our current situation might not be nearly as dire as apocalyptic times, we are all still living in deeply food-insecure times.
Coming from an urban perspective, I’d always seen environmentalism as a highly privileged interest, somehow separate from the common woman. [note: this perception also comes from living in Marin County, where the food movement and environmentalism are sometimes just for show//are closely linked with money] Which is really sad because knowledge of the environment, essential to our survival, shouldn’t be inaccessible by its very nature. The direction of the environmental movement towards food, then, is a hopeful one, and can bring the intersectional perspective that environmentalism needs in order to thrive.
Anyway, the apocalypse has me thinking about how everyone is implicated, and how we need to gain the knowledge of food required to survive. I think we should all appreciate this summer for allowing us to get our hands in the dirt and gain a deeper understanding of food. I guess when the time comes we’ll be ready
Hey, Erin. Your comment took an interesting spin on the prompt, which I really liked. This also made me think about how little people often know about where their food comes from and how food is produced. Today, it’s so easy to walk into a store and buy various food products from almost every continent, regardless of whether they’re currently in season or not. An apocalypse would force us to return to a closer connection to our food and nature, and skills such as foraging, gardening, and food preservation would become essential. I certainly feel such an event is a decent possibility in the upcoming decades/centuries, and while I think nature will be able to adapt, I think it will be much harder for humans. We also might find ourselves short in food if we lose the honeybees.
Hi Erin,
I agree with you as I also come from an urban background and have not had much opportunity to learn about environmentalism or other sustainability/conservation/food movement. I sometimes feel really difficult to connect with what Berry talks about in his book (such as the strong feelings he has towards food and farming). I also agree with you that environmentalism and food movement need to be much more than just “for show”. There needs to be a way for people in the cities to really understand, learn and thus connect with the nature and environment.