Earth Care

Yesterday morning, a friend had shared a story from NPR about a school program in DC or somewhere that was getting kids excited about eating kale. The basic idea was something like "kids don't like vegetables, but these kids do!" It went on to describe the program, the school gardens, and how the kids were excited to be growing, cooking and eating vegetables. I like to hear stories like this, and I liked when Naomi and I would take a walk to the school garden at the elementary school up the hill from our apartment. All of these things are fine and great, but the part of the article that stuck out to me was something that the director of this school program had said, and it was something to the effect of teaching kids to eat well and care for the earth.

These types of programs or events tend to focus on teaching kids to eat healthy, or how to grow vegetables, or where their food comes from, but caring for the earth is at the heart of it.  It's also frequently overlooked it seems, at least from the articles that cover these types of things, but it's the most important part. Naomi and I discussed this idea over breakfast that morning and came to a consensus that if caring for the earth is the basis of our actions, then we will eat healthier food, be more active in our lives, and care for other people more, but if we just focus on one of those things, then we don't also necessarily care for the earth.

I do believe that caring for the earth is the core of our beliefs, especially care for its soils, animals and each other. It's what compels me to continue doing what I do.