“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. The greatest danger to our future is apathy. You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you.” Jane Goodall.
We know what we need to do to reverse climate change and stop biodiversity loss. We need to Stop polluting our atmosphere with gases that are leading to a warmer climate, and changing what we are using our limited resources for will be critical. We need to grow different crops; we need to reduce our consumption and we need to change what we consume and what we eat. The large corporations may want us to think all is well and we have little power to influence change, but both statements could not be further from the truth. Each one of us has the power to change, the power to make change happen, because we all have choices.
The enormity of the task can seem overwhelming, and this can lead to apathy, to lack of action, to a feeling of what’s the point, what difference can I make anyway? and that is understandable.
But the truth is that business as usual is not working, and we are destroying our planet and the biodiversity that we share this world with. We are making a mark on the planet that we may look back on with regret. We are leaving a legacy to our children that I imagine one day they will point to and say, ‘what were they doing, were they of sound mind?’
But the path to a brighter future is right there before us and there is hope, we can take back our power and make a difference. It can start with our reconnection with nature, seeing the beauty in the natural world and seeing that our choices really matter and can protect our planet and the creatures we share this planet with.
When we make choices that help us to live in harmony with nature then we are most definitely on the right path, and these can be small simple changes like leaving wild areas of our gardens, or cutting down on meat consumption, or choosing non factory farmed meat, or not always jumping in the car, or planting a tree, or picking up a piece of plastic waste, or choosing loose produce in the supermarket, or not choosing ultraprocessed foods, or planting a little vegetable garden, or if we can choosing green electricity, or choosing food that hasn’t been growing with chemicals, or kindly encouraging others to pick up the mantle, now imagine if we were all doing this, wouldn’t that make a difference, wouldn’t it send a message to institutions and corporations and governments that enough is enough?
‘Thinking somebody else will do what needs to be done is the greatest threat to our planet’ Robert Swan
But the opposite is also true. What if we say ‘no’ to business as usual, we leave the corporations to their greed and selfishness. We can choose differently, we can change our relationship with the natural world and instead of seeing it as something we can take and use as we want, we can begin again to treat it with the respect it deserves, and this amazingly beautiful living interconnected organism will thrive again.
Then we have a chance, we have a chance to repair the damage, to reduce our emissions to stop treating animals in the horrendous conditions of factory farms, of taking little steps to stand up to the business-as-usual demagogs, to fight for change, to say no to the vested corporate interests all around us that are pushing us to unlimited consumption.
We can all be the change we want to see in the world as Gandhi said and it is not too late.
Every single day we can do something positive and life affirming all we need is to choose to do it.You make our mission possible and thank you for your support.
Kenneth
PS, Without doubt it has been the wettest spring in our 18 years of growing organic veg, but we still have a good selection of Irish organic produce at least for now! find it all here.