I crashed a home school field trip on Ted's farm today! It was a 7 year old, a 10 year old, their mom who is their teacher, and their dad. I was excited to see what these kids would be curious about, what questions they would ask and what they would find interesting.
For her to have this perception on education and childhood, to understand the gravity of it in that way, and take responsibility for developing that, and being so stoked on it the whole time was really awe-inspiring. Parenting!!!! Oh man!!!! What a daunting task. She has enforced a rule where the kids have to eat something 10 times before they can say they don't like it. She says this has resulted in them loving vegetables they initially did not like. The also have a tendency now to avoid the typical food and candies kids become accustomed to. They prefer carrot sticks over gummy bears!
Ted shared his experience working on a conventional farm before he came to appreciate organic farming. He spent time in full on resperators and suits where no skin was suppose to be exposed and after spraying these pesticides and insecticides his lips would start to feel wierd. What he was working with was so poisonious the label said that "a taste to a drop" could be lethal. Ted was using a tablespoon per gallon. I feel like anyhing that requires you to be completely covered like that should not be something you should even be exposing yourself to in the first place, much less spraying it on what will become food. Maybe that theory contradicts something in my life I'm not thinking of right now, but at the least I feel confident in saying we should not let food production evolve into a system where these poisons and chemicles are the ONLY option, or the most prevalent, and it certainly should be more of a transparent system where information about the facts are not suppressed but are in fact well known where people and consumers can make informed decisions.
Ted let us know that the money he saves from not using these kind of things is significant, and organic fertilizers that he buys are NOT significantly more exspensive. I was surprised. I asked if his production was significantly lower than if he did utilize chemicle fertilizers and such and he didn't tihnk so. He talked about the natural predators in the ecosystem. When he did get an infestation of certain bugs, it seemed to ake care of itself in a couple days. He did acknowledge that maybe he had more hearty vegetables he was growing and maybe he was lucky in that way.
Apparently there is a lot of old sugar land available now. It turns out some of this land that has been tested and worked on has a problem with high levels of arsenic due to a herbicide that was commonly used on suagr cane. Ted expressed his frustration with the idea that land that is left alone for 3 years after chemicle use is technically considered organic. But this arsenic issue proves this wrong? The blood of a couple who worked on former sugar land also tested high in arsenic, but, Ted mentioned this is only one group of people he met and isn't comfortable making generalized statements about it. But I still think it's interesting to record and have in mind. The couple said that they could not plant leafy greens on land like this, there might be certain plants more than others that aren't safe to plant on soil with arsenic, depends how much the plant is capable of absorbing it. Ted brought up the subject of bioremediation, which I hadn't heard of. I'm not sure if that is the idea behind not mono-cropping and planting things like clover and intermitten things to treat or protect the soil, or if bioremediation is something more technical.
The system to test for these kind of chemicles is not in the avor of protecting human health. I think the fathefather said it is about $300 to test for each chemicle you want to single out. we talked about the bueracracy of organic certification and it is almost more meaningful to learn what's organic by "getting to know your farmer" than with this certification system that costs s much for organic farmers.
We talked about changing the narrative that organic is for rich people and yuppies or hippies. It's a health issue, not a status or class one, or at least it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be something only rich people can afford. We all know that, but can more research, knowledge, education, adcovacy, and declarations of knowing what is right compete with lobbyest and whoever is benefiting from the way this system is now? All these issues make me reflect on what is the true strength of our own democracies in terms of political engagement and whether those we elect to represent us actually consider that responsibility and purpose above all else.
Genetically modifying crops like Monsonto does potentially messes with naural characteristics, ted gave the example of soybeans natural ability to be nitrogen-fixing. the mom pointed out Europe and Asia have already banned GMO crops. I don't know much on the numbers and facts on this.
So we had a lot of talk on GMO and organic, and maybe I had more fun than the kids did. They were stoked though to wander around in the fields and see the plants that these vegetables actually grow on, and the different stages of their development. One held up a wing bean and a long bean and said "Mom, look! These are BOTH beans!"