Editor’s note: Maria Padhila’s column will not be appearing today, but we look forward to her next installment from the land of modern polyamory next week. In case you’ve landed here from elsewhere wondering why this article from the Planet Waves compersion and sexuality archives is not about astrology, consider it an introduction to the truly holistic perspective Eric takes on existence and relating. After all, astrology is all about relationships. – amanda
by Eric Francis (originally published February 2001)
We’re all familiar with organic food. This is food grown without pesticide sprays or toxic fertilizers, from natural seeds that have escaped genetic engineering. In theory, organic food has no synthetic preservatives or artificial dyes, nothing extra that it does not need (like plastic filler) and it’s handled in a way that preserves some of the integrity of what nature created. Due to crop loss, it’s expensive (though cheaper than restaurant food, which most of us eat a lot of).
But it’s better. Organic food is often sold closer to the natural growing times, and there are some philosophies of organic diet (Macrobiotics, for example) which suggest that we eat only food grown locally and when it’s in season. Most important, we think of organic food as whole food, rather than food which is fractioned off like white flower, or recombined to make weird things like fortified breakfast cereal or vitamin D skim milk.
The organic food philosophy (usually known in Europe as Biodynamics) honors the reality that both the land and people need to be healthier and the relationship between the two is food. There is an acknowledged connection between ecology (which means the “study of home”) and the health of the people who live in that home.
A concept at the core of organic eating is sustainability. We know that our current agricultural system is killing the planet and making us sick; we know that most of the foods available in the supermarket lack basic nutrition. Organic farming, Biodynamics and other philosophies show how we can sustain both human life and planetary life through one process.
We also know that society’s teachings about relationships, which glorify possession of other people, rely on artificial structures, and which are usually based on oppressive, negative ideas, are harming us and damaging health of the planet just as aggressively as agribusiness. Unfulfilled, emotionally undernourished people can be risky to the happiness of others, especially when they grow angry and spread emotional toxins. And this is most of what we get in the world when we enter the human environment.
So, what about organic love?