lifestyle

Consumption vs Production - you are what you eat

Most of us live in highly advanced communities.  We live and die with technology, speed and precision that seems to distance us from the rest of our world’s plants and animals.  This is exacerbated by the fact that approximately half of us live in dense cities.  We are much more likely to exist without obvious relationships with  plants and animals because of the simple limits of space. 

Japanese life is somehow fundamentally different.  Of course this is a generalisation, but Japanese people seem to have retained a sense of connection with growing plants no matter how congested their living conditions.  Even the most crowded apartment blocks in polluted city streets will have balconies sprouting amazing greenery that is carefully nurtured by busy professionals or ancient grandparents alike.  Even on the main streets of Tokyo, people aren’t shy of setting up a little conglomeration of pots holding their favourite plants, on the sidewalk.   Where ever there is a space, someone will want to grow something.

Some people understand the value of growing things, others think it is just quaint.  What do you think?  If you are like the vast majority of Western society, you will probably assume that growing plants is something best left to the professionals.  However you just may be wrong.

This is where our concept of production versus consumption impacts reality.  The question I have to ask you is, are you connected with the production of the elements that sustain your life?

Connection, in a practical sense exists regardless of what we do.  We do breath the air, we do eat the food and we do feel the environmental effects of our natural world whether we like it or not.  What I am suggesting is that we take a more active roll in this connection.  All of us have the oportunity to enter into some degree of production to stop us from being passive consumers. 

Every plant grows somewhere.  Why not have one growing under your care?  A plant or a garden full of plants will give you a direct experience of the link between you and the rest of the living world.  Try it and you will see.  Take some soil and a seed.  Plant it in a pot to sit on your window sill and feed it.  Over time you will be able to watch something come to life.  One day after feeding it for a while, it may feed you something.  If not, that doesn’t matter.  You have still played a roll in the production cycle, and have moved from being a passive consumer to an active producer.  Make it your goal this coming year to eat at least one thing that you have grown. 

One nice side benefit from looking after plants is that gardening is a wonderful illustration of the growth of anything productive.  The parallels are limitted only by your imagination.  The first that springs to my mind is how only a few great ideas actually come to anything.  My small vegetable garden never grows everything that I plant in it.  It doesn’t get enough sun at some times of year for some plants.  I plant maybe 5 or 6 different vegetables in it, knowing full well that only 1 or 2 will really do anything spectacular.  This has become how I view my non-gardening ventures as well.  I now realise that no matter how good an idea is, it still might not take off, if the conditions are not right.  So I have come to accept a degree of non-success in my life.  I know that if I begin 6 things, on average 2 will work, 2 will work exceptionally well, and 2 will not even start to work.  This is my observation.  What is yours?

Growing something is one of the easiest things that you can do.  Growing something well can be significantly harder but nobody needs to be an expert.  All you need is a handful of soil in a tin can, a seed or a tiny plant, a scrap of sunlight and some water.  Then you can call yourself a gardener and you have crossed over from being a consumer towards being a producer. 

Are any of you gardeners already?  I’d love to hear a success story or two about production in your life.