As news services across the world start beaming out word of a global "food crisis" it is ever more apparent that the feedback from Gaia, our planet, is telling us to transform our eco-social matrix to be able to cope and thrive as a species and planet. Articles like: The New Economics of Hunger, posted on washingtonpost.com, serve to sound the warning bells, but fail to offer us a holistic view of the situation or offer any solution oriented reporting.
In fact, there seems to be a nearly insurmountable gap between the problem and solution in nearly every mainstream media outlet. The other side of the coin is illustrated by the recent article posted titled:
Groundbreaking report offers holistic remedies for famine relief and environmental protection in developing countries
This report, writen by the Rodale Institute is an example of the integrative solutions to the worlds problems. It is optimistic, and vibrantly hopeful. it shows how we can build soil, halt desertification and feed the world by honoring local knowledge and cooperating to create a new type of economy. We are on the cusp, and what is needed to push us over the edge, trascending the fear and pessimism so prevalent in the media, is mainstream attention on the SOLUTIONS.
Ecovillages, Permaculture, Transition Towns, City Repair and countless other collective and individual initiatives are popping up to regenerate the environment and culture. I dont know about you but I want to hear about it!
People are only as dumb as the information they recieve. Lets find a way to pulse out the hopeful news and articulate things clearly but not mush up the details or dumb down the content...its time for the shift to take place, and instatutions like Rodale, the Ecovillage Training Center, and Global Village Institute, amoung a whole myriad of other NGO's, Venture Altruists, and green collar buisnesses are working overtime to address the problem. The infrasctureture is there, in place...just waiting for culture to shift so we can pull ourselves up to the next level: out of poverty, famine and war and into abundance, affluince for all, and cooperation. It may sound like utopia...but it is just around the corner if we can shift our attention from the fear of famine and war, to the solutions and hope that these challenges require of us.
I call this slow process of culture change Nemawashi, Nemawashi is a Japanese term for the slow meticulious preperation needed for large scale transformation. Its literal translation is cutting out the roots of a tree and reparing a hole for transplanting. This metaphore sings the song of slow steady work to create transformation in the blink of the eye...
Lets declare our interdependence and start re-connecting the dots to create the change we want to see
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