Organic Vanity?

I read with interest the Wall Street Journal's "Weekend Interview" with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe .  The headline of the piece is a provocative question: "Can the world still feed itself?"  Brabeck-Letmathe offers a qualified affirmative answer, and one of those qualifications is one that I know will trouble many.  I refer here to his comments on genetically modified crops:

What's harder for him to understand is that Europe's policies effectively forbid poor countries in places like Africa from using genetically modified seed. These countries, he says, urgently need the technology to increase yields and productivity in their backward agricultural sectors. But if they plant GMOs, then under Europe's rules the EU "will not allow you to export anything—anything. Not just the [crop] that has GMO—anything," because of European fears about cross-contamination and almost impossibly strict purity standards. The European fear of genetically modified crops is, he says, "purely emotional. It's becoming almost a religious belief."
This makes Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe, a jovial man with a quick smile, get emotional himself. "How many people," he asks with a touch of irritation, "have died from food contamination from organic products, and how many people have died from GMO products?" He answers his own question: "None from GMO. And I don't have to ask too long how many people have died just recently from organic," he adds, referring to the e. coli outbreak earlier this year in Europe.

I have to agree with him.  Denying impoverished peoples the opportunity to at least try using GMO crops - which are more productive per unit land area than "regular" crops and organic crops- is unconscionable.  Is it not indeed a kind of vanity to insist that those starving and dying in East Africa do without the benefit of more productive crops?

Comments at FBC Mason, 31 July 2011

I had the opportunity to speak to the congregants of the First Baptist Church of Mason yesterday.  Here is a rough sketch of what I had to say.

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about Harvest Stewards, a project that I have come to think of as my personal  mission.

I have been a gardener for about a dozen years.  Any of you that have a garden or know of someone that has a garden have probably heard someone say -or maybe you've said some version of it yourself- "I have so many zucchini, I just don't know what to do with'em all!".  Or maybe instead of zucchini, it was beans or tomatoes or cucumbers or some other thing.  The idea, in any case, is that even in the small garden plots that folks keep in their back yards, there is often surplus.  And in the last few years, the, "and I just don't know what to do with'em all" part of that refrain has hung heavy in my ears.  And I can't pinpoint the exact instant when the connection was made in my mind to the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew, but it was; and therein lay the seed of a plan to get more people more involved in the ministry of feeding hungry folks in our area.  Let me refresh our memory about that 25th chapter of Matthew...

In that chapter, Jesus tells a parable about the ten virgins and their oil lamps, then the parable about the talents, and the chapter is closed out with a brief exposition of the Final Judgment.  I should like to point out that in one way or another, each of these three sections is in one way or another, about stewardship, about using one's God-given resources for the Kingdom of God.   In particular, in those closing passages of the chapter, Jesus commends the righteous for, among other things, feeding Him when He was hungry.  They then say, "but... we don't remember ever feeding you..."  And as we all recall, Jesus says, "ah, but whenever you fed the hungry, you fed me; whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me".  And so, in March of 2010, it dawned on me that I do know what to do with all that surplus produce, and I incorporated Harvest Stewards as a non-profit LLC - the idea behind it being so utterly simple: grow food and give it away. 

So: last year I started a small garden at my church in Latonia, Kentucky, and I set aside some space at home for growing food that I would give away.  In all, we're talking about approximately 170 square feet of garden space under cultivation. 

Now, one may say, wouldn't it be better to have Kroger or Castellini or some well-landed farmers donate from their ample supplies?  Yeah, it would be better, I suppose.  But remember the parable of the talents: the master gets after that one-talent servant; he doesn't fault him for not managing the talents of the 5- or 2-talent servants.  He says, "good grief, man, you couldn't even be bothered to deposit the money in a simple interest-bearing account?  Get out of here, you're fired"  The point the parable makes is that each of us is accountable for our own stewardship, not that of anyone else, corporate or individual. 

So: last year's gardens yielded 156 pounds of produce, mostly cucumbers, squash, corn, beans and tomatoes.  All of this went to Action Ministries and Fairhaven Rescue Mission, both in Northern Kentucky. 

This year I'm using the same garden at my church in Latonia, and I've set aside a little more space at home for growing donation produce.  A new thing I'm trying this year is a plan I call "drop off and top off", whereby I drop off a specially designed grow box (essentially a large pot with a water reservoir on the bottom) with a willing participant, whose only responsibility is to top off the water, to make sure that the grow box doesn't run dry, and then take the produce to a local food ministry.  My friend Chris, who by the way, lives right here in Mason, does not have a green thumb at all, but he's had great success with the "drop off and top off" scheme.  In the seasons to come, we'll be seeking out more and more stewards who want to help feed hungry folks -no green thumb necessary!  I've put some of my calling cards where you can find them; I'd love to be in touch with anyone who is interested in Harvest Stewards. 

Many thanks to Pastor Bill Mountsier for the chance to speak to the folks at FBC Mason.  I was pleased to hear from several folks afterwards that they would begin donating produce and some even talked about starting a garden at the church.

Seasonal update

This time last year, we had already started our donations to Action Ministries.  This year?  So far, nothing has ripened up enough to donate.  I started a different sort of cucumber this year in my grow box, "Armenian Long" cucumbers.  They're poor producers so far.  Maybe they'll come in like gangbusters later on?  I hope so. 

On the bright side, it looks as if we'll have rhubarb to harvest in a few weeks' time. 

And there will be at least a few cantaloupes too:

They're small now, so I reckon mid-August will be their pick-date. 

The tomatoes are producing, but none are ripe just yet.  Okra plants are coming along slowly, I hope they'll start producing late this month or early next. 

Another positive development is that the beans are doing SO much better this year.  Last season, we got no beans whatsoever. This season, I used a soil inoculant and I suspect that has made the difference.  A long row of beans is just about to start climbing on the garden trellis.  It won't be long before we have a big green wall of protein waiting to be harvested!

Seasonal progress, greening thumbs

The LBC garden is growing nicely.  The beans are shooting right up; hopefully we'll have better luck with them this year than last.  We put in some raspberries and rhubarb, both of which are doing well.  There are flowers on the cantaloupe, too!  Oh, and I mustn't forget the tiny okra seedlings, which I hope will produce as well in the LBC garden as the ones in my own garden did last Summer.  

Elsewhere -yes, we do have an elsewhere this year!- things are progressing nicely as well.  Up in Mason, Ohio, at the home of my good buddy Chris, we're trying out the "fire and forget" concept, whereby I drop off a grow-box (of, in this case, zucchini and cucumbers) and the single instruction to not let the water reservoir run dry.  So far, it looks like I've been able to make a gardener out of my friend:

LBC Garden Starts again!

I spent a little bit of time a few nights ago working on the garden at Latonia Baptist Church. The weeds had begun to assert themselves, and the clayey "soil" had hardened despite all the rain we've had of late. some well-rotted straw strewn about and worked into the soil and I think we're off to a good start. Here's what it looks like right now:

And here's a slightly better look at the tomatoes I planted (in the bottom right of the picture above): 

Vacation help

Summer is the time when things are ripening in the garden as well as the time when folks go on vacation; what's a gardener to do, just let things fall off the vine, let the squash get huge and inedible, let the skunks and possums and raccoons have their way with the corn and cantaloupe and whatever else? No, of course not. Harvest Stewards will be happy to come by during a gardener's absence to pick whatever would otherwise go bad or to waste. And, it should go without saying, whatever is harvested will be donated to a local food charity.

How and why to grow your own

I just came across a great blog all about growing your own food. It's run by the Maryland Master Gardeners and the UM College of Agriculture & Natural Resources. Grow It Eat It has a wealth of practical and noteworthy information on how you can grow your own food -or food for those less fortunate (that's what we're all about here after all). In addition to the many reasons to grow your own food, add this latest nugget of doom: agricultural pesticides may have a negative effect on kids' IQ (hat tip: Garden Rant). Before I go an inch further with this, I want to make clear the provisional nature of this (and any other) scientific discovery. I'm not for clanging the alarm bells prematurely. The bottom line is that this bears some consideration. And speaking of reasons to grow your own food, I should like to recommend a book I recently came across, called Grow the Good Life by Michelle Owens.

Thank You!

A big thank you to the kind folks at The Next Chapter Church in Newport, KY for their generous donation to Harvest Stewards!

What we're doing, and how you can help.

It never hurts to clarify or remind folks (or myself!) of Harvest Stewards' mission.  It's simple: grow food and give it to hungry folks.  That's it.  There's no "market-specific value-added components of synergistic this-that-or-the-other".  Just grow and give.  This year we want to donate a ton -yes, literally: 2,000 pounds- of produce to hungry folks.  Last year I was able to grow and distribute over 150 pounds of produce mostly on my own, with more than enough garden goodies left over  for my own family.  My personal goal this year is 200 pounds, and with some careful planning, I think this will be attainable.  That puts us at 1,800 pounds to go...

And here is where I tell you what you can do to help.

1. If you have a garden, just commit to donating a portion of the produce you grow to a local foodbank or other food aid ministry.  And when I say "local", I mean it: it doesn't matter where you live, there is probably a foodbank somewhere not too far from you.  You live in the Cincinnati area?  Cool: I know of places that will accept your food donations.  You live in...  Nashville or Seattle or Albuquerque or Boise (or wherever)?  Cool: I can help you find a place that will accept your food donations.  It's a good idea to have a place in mind from the start, but don't let not knowing where to drop off your produce stand in the way of making the commitment. 
2. If you don't have a garden, you can still grow and give.  You might be amazed at the amount of stuff that can be grown in a container on your porch or balcony.  I made and used an "earth-tainer" last year and I was impressed with its results.  They're easy to build, easy to set up and they don't take up too much space.  If you live in the Cincinnati area, I can even help you make one or maybe even have you use one of mine from last year.  In short, it's a Rubbermaid container made into a largish pot with some airholes and a water reservoir.  Last summer mine produced some 70 pounds of cucumbers.  
3. If you don't have a garden and don't have space for container gardening, you can still help; if you're interested in helping in some other way, please get in touch with me.  Your help may be as simple as pitching the idea to a friend of yours who does have a garden, or who is forever telling you in August that s/he doesn't know what on earth s/he is going to do with all the zucchini s/he's getting out of the garden.  Harvest Stewards is not a 501(c)3 organization, but there are ways of making charitable contributions to us that you will be able to deduct from your income for tax purposes.  Get in touch with me to discuss this if you want to make a charitable donation. 

Ok, so that covers the "how" and the "what". I should also mention the "why" of all this too. the idea started a year or so ago, but I've recently been reading a book called Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt that crystallizes the impetus behind Harvest Stewards nicely. The idea is that those of us who call ourselves "Christians" (among whom I count myself) ought to do a lot more of the kind of stuff that Christ actually called us to do and a lot less of the stuff that he enjoined his followers from doing (or, at any rate, never specifically endorsed, and very likely wouldn't have done). For example: a lot more feeding the hungry and a lot less navel-gazing about how and why those folks came to find themselves in their present conditions. So yeah, this is an overtly religious mission. Of course, I'd be happy if you agreed with all of this, but you needn't do so in order to help.

So: give it some thought; grow a little and give a lot.