In the past man was more in touch with nature. As is still today in many none western societies most people grew a good amount of their own foods in their own small garden or vegetable patch, kept their few fruit trees that would provide them with fruit in their seasons. They would toil the earth and bring forth from it vegetables, grains and legumes. They would hope and pray for the rains that would wet the earth and help their plants to grow and give fruit. They were good to the land and the land was good to them. They would pick and eat their produce when it was ripe and ready to eat. They would eat a large percent of their food fresh from the earth.
One cannot deny that modern medicine has done absolute miracles for mankind. The life expectancy of mankind is growing and infant mortality is decreasing. Diseases that plagued the world in the past are being vaccinated more or less out of existence. Technology has enabled us to look into the living human body in order to locate the exact of disease and has provided us with means of healing the body which would have been completely unimaginable a hundred years ago.
But with modern medicine and technology came the other less desirable aspects of our modern society.
Faster and more efficient modes of transportation as well as accurate and easily acquired time keeping devises brought about a much ridged schedule as well as an aspect of everyday stress over a matter of minutes.
Many of our modern comforts have robed us of our daily requirement of physical exercise. Our body must have exercise in order to work at its maximum potential. The movement helps our blood flow and helps keep our bones strong. Exercise also plays an important role in keeping us balanced mentally.
Due to the increased amount of man power needed to fill all the new job positions that were created by modern society, as well as the growth of the world population. There came the need to produce large amounts of food. Thus was born what can be called the industrialization of agriculture, farming and food production. The product of which is the microwavable TV dinner.
Every stage of food production nowadays is being affected by this industrialization. Genetic modification of crop cells to make them more withstand able to pesticides. The pesticides themselves which are there to increase crop yield. The Replanting of the same crops on the same soil, using inorganic fertilizers, thus robbing the soil of its minerals. The use of antibiotics and hormones in crops and livestock. The processing of the foods to make them last longer on the shelf and make them more appeasing to the eyes and taste buds, by using preservatives. added colors and flavors.
As a result of the new fast pace life people want food that is fresh tasty and ready without need of lengthy preparation. The problem with this new fast food is that they a robed of much of their essential vitamins and minerals and are loaded with preservatives, food colorings and flavors that are harmful to the body.
Stress lack of exercise and poor nutrition are now being seen as some of the causes of the new diseases that are plaguing the modern western world. Examples of such diseases are diabetes, obesity and cancer.
In addition to all the physical effects that the industrialization and modernization of the food production. There is one more effect that it has had on modern man that may be even more important. This is the loss of feeling for the deep symbiotic relationship between man and nature.
Most people don’t give much thought to where their food comes from. They buy it in the super market and that is all. We don’t think about where it came from or when it was picked.
Of course in the past there was always rice, grains and other legumes that were dried and stored and shipped all over the world. But the idea that the food we eat came from the ground and the gratitude to that Great Spirit that brought the food into being from a small seed more apparent and strongly felt.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons why today we have such problems as waste and pollution which are destroying our beautiful earth. Could it be that we have forgotten that the earth is what gives us our sustenance and that by destroying the earth we are destroying ourselves.
So to that when we lose touch with that connection that we have with the earth we loose touch with a certain connection with ourselves and our place in the cosmoses.
Home gardening is not going to be the solution to all of these problems. Most people don’t have the ability to grow all or even ten percent of their food. But home gardening is one step that everyone can take, each on his or her own level, to improving physical and mental health as well as spiritual connection with the earth and nature.
