Why I Became a Tree-Hugging, Granola Cruncher

Part 2

A common theme among military members (at least when I was in) is to marry young, have children young and get divorced… well young.  I was fortunate to meet the woman of my dreams not long after my divorce and we will celebrate 20 years of loving married life next month.  I told my wife when we met that I would end up with my kids which she didn’t believe until they moved in with us full time just weeks after we got married. 

I love my wife and my children dearly.  There has always been a lot of love in our house; it’s a theme we live by “Live Life with Love” and one we share with our friends and family.  That attitude has a very nice way of leading to happy and good times. 

We thought we had it all when our younger daughter left home.  Finally we had a chance to enjoy life without kids in the house.  Our older daughter had left a couple of years earlier, got married, brought us a beautiful granddaughter and then got pregnant with our grandson.  As is so often the case of young marriages, she got divorced and moved in with us when our granddaughter Claire was 18 months old and her brother Ricky came about 5 months later nothing compares to grandchildren! 

It wasn’t long after Claire’s birth that I started learning about and getting involved with organics.  I had worked with organic produce before but years ago it was nothing more than a marketing tool.  As I learned about organics and healthy eating, I started getting healthier myself and my wife got healthier too.  When my daughter and Claire moved in they started eating healthier with us and great results soon followed.  Ricky joined in last year and is truly a specimen of health.

As I learned more and more about healthy eating, healthy lifestyles and everything that goes with that I started learning about the importance of a healthy planet.  I also learned that there are policies that our government promotes that are not only unhealthy for our people but unhealthy for the planet.  I took a course revolving around the world’s food practices and the absolutely unsustainable nature of the food systems in place.  The worst part of that is that a few billionaires are set up to become bigger billionaires all with the support and actual subsidization of our government while future generations may not even be able to survive. 

Our planet is warming up.  We have already increased our annual average temperature by 1 degree Fahrenheit which doesn’t sound like much but 4.5 is believed to be the threshold for life; which makes 1 sound like a very large number to me.  We are losing topsoil at an alarming rate and may not be able to farm classic farmland much longer.  We are literally mortgaging our children’s, grandchildren’s and future generation’s ability to live so that a handful of people can profit today.

Going organic can and does reverse much of the damage!  Organic farming promotes humus which holds carbon in the soil.  It literally builds living arable soil from dead dirt taking a holistic approach to soil which also increases the nutrition of the food grows in it.  We have the capability to quite literally save the world and it starts with that first step of going organic.

For my wife and me I am not worried.  We are still pretty young but we have had a long time of a great life.  For my children and grandchildren I find there really is no choice but to try and create a better world for them; we owe it to them  That is a large part of why I am a proud Tree-Hugging, Granola-Crunching, organic living advocate!   

More than seven billion people

Seven continents

Two thousand Islands

One hundred ninety six countries

More than seventy distinct religious faiths

One planet

One ocean

One atmosphere

One sun

One great ecosystem

Created Organic

© 2013 Richard E. Robinson