My favorite Earth Week Message

The message below arrived in last week's mail. I took too long to ask the author for permission to quote it. Fascinating ideas on specific actions we can take during this time of threatened food shortages, to make our families and neighborhoods a bit more self sufficient.

I feel obligated to come out of hiding to address a very serious issue. Out of nowhere, as many “catastrophes” often appear, America is facing a food shortage. Completely laudable, some would argue, and agree that if a real threat at all, must indeed be related to increasing gasoline prices. Now whether you believe this shortage to be inevitable or a capitalistic ploy (I vote for number two), we Americans are not completely helpless. There are some who want us to believe we are helpless, but as long as we believe we are not, we are not! There are ways that we can take back control of our food supply and decrease cancer rates and pollution at the same time.

From Tammie Umbel, CEO
Shea Terra Organics


"The area surrounding my ten acre, organically managed farm in Leesburg, VA is a picture that I have seen again and again in my travels across the country. What used to be cow pastures and cash crop farms are now miniature, luxury estates. Across from a five hundred acre cow farm are houses over ten thousand square feet with five to twenty acres a piece. Now some might hate me for what I am about to say, and frankly I could care less. It wouldn’t be the first or last time anyhow. But while the owners of these houses look outside to their kingdom of lush, manicured “pastures”, I see giant junk yards, endless pits of waste that are the real reason America might face a food shortage, and why food prices are soaring. Not only do these yards require a lot of environment polluting diesel to manicure them , but they are also eating up land that could be used for local food production- to feed the masses so we can stop importing the majority of our food from across the globe.

And she goes on to make suggestions that many of us may be able to follow. Read more here.