SOLVING CRIME AND INEQUALITY, WITH A SEED
A sense of community itself goes a long way towards building the kind of trust and equality necessary for safer and more just communities. [1] Indeed, many of today’s social improvement programs, from arts to sports, to jobs, housing and political forums, are choosing to base their efforts on community cultivation, as strong communities are often springboards for social and economic well being. [2]
But what if this kind of trust and community could be built while simultaneously undertaking another type of cultivation, the kind where individuals work gently and carefully together to cultivate the land. What would the benefits be?
Is it possible for a humble seed and a patch of soil to be the catalysts for stronger, healthier, more equal urban communities?
Countless studies have shown — and frankly if they didn’t, then common sense should show — that through cultivating a relationship with the land, individuals and communities learn how to be better connected to each other, and more appreciative of life at a basic level. [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
— Mahatma K. Ghandi
In the years we have spent producing the Final Straw film, Suhee and I have seen repeatedly, that in the community garden in general — and the natural farm mentality specifically — there is an understanding of self paired with anappreciation for all life which can not be learned anyplace else. As an active participant in this learning where we create harmonious relationships and nurture other living things, individuals are also, sometimes unknowingly, creating the building blocks for a society which has far less crime and conflict.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
