Eco-Act 009: planting with purpose, awaiting the harvest in hope

Planting with purpose

awaiting the harvest

Throughout this past spring we “planted some seeds:” we shared some ideas about food—growing it, mindfully choosing what to grow, buy and eat, even how to reduce the amount we waste. Our purpose? Originally, it was to take on the seemingly unstoppable, despair-inducing, “game over” force of climate change by identifying positive, “person-sized” steps each of us can take to act with a “game on” attitude instead—to act in hope. These positive steps included:

• Tending a garden (eco-act 003)

• Re-growing scallions (eco-act 001)

• Intentionally replacing a meat-oriented meal with a plant-based meal, regularly or occasionally (eco-act 002)

• “Eating local” as a way of celebrating, supporting and connecting with our local environment (eco-act 007)

• Grocery shopping mindfully to reduce waste (eco-act 006)

• Enlisting worms to make use of food scraps (eco-act 004)

For those who have taken any of these or similar small steps, may they have (re)kindled a sense of environmental purpose, direction and hope in you. May (re)connecting with the rhythms of planting, growing, consuming and conserving given you a sense of your place in them. If you haven’t yet, it’s always the right time to jump in: there’s still time to plant, always time to shop and eat mindfully, always time to let nothing be wasted.

Of course, this spring unfolded into a season sadder, darker and more discouraging than anyone could have imagined. And we were reminded—or perhaps taught for the first time—that climate change is linked to environmental/racial justice, and that it hits marginalized communities especially hard. Acting with purpose and waiting in hope seems especially difficult here because many corrective actions feel systemic rather than “person-sized.” None of us can single-handedly close a factory that pollutes nearby poor neighborhoods, for example.

But we can leverage our individual power by supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)-owned farms, restaurants, organizations, and other businesses. We can vote, show up at budget/council meetings, and ask more of our school boards. What are some other actions you could take?

• Support Black-owned businesses & communities on Seattle Good Business Network

  • Check out the “Food & Beverage” section; be sure to click on “Additional Black-Owned Food Business Lists”—and look in all three sections

  • Under the “Donate” tab, check out “Black Community Food Initiatives”

  • Under the “Learn” tab, check out “Local Food/Farm Groups”

• Revisit our posts on centering Black Environmental Justice Activists

• Learn Native history & recognize Settler Colonialism as the “original sin” of the US, especially in terms of environmental/social justice

Whether it’s gardening, managing a worm bin, adjusting diet and food shopping habits—or taking a step toward environmental/racial justice, we would love to hear what you have been up to. And we hope that your purposeful act has given you hope.

Eco-Act 003: Tending a Garden

Tend your own garden

& share your bounty!

Gardening is a great opportunity to get your hands dirty, reconnect with the earth, and tend to life (our first vocation according to the Creation story). Often this sense of rootedness can inspire feelings of wonder, gratitude, and connectedness to the land — not to mention, provide delicious, accessible food that you grew yourself! It is the most local you can eat, and inevitably becomes more neighborhoodly as “you will have produce to give away and the need to borrow [your neighbors’] tools.”*

Short on space? Plant in pots, window boxes, or go vertical! Join a local P-patch or community garden (COVID-19 P-Patch tips here) or work the space you got. In the vein of creative use of space, we are excited to report that Afsaneh Rahimian, who lives nearby 415, has adopted our parking lot planter boxes as the home for an herb garden! One of our longtime friends from the Women’s Shelter still visits 415 and has helped tend the plants too. She donated enough soil for Union’s garden, and to share with our friends at LUV who are working on their own boxes. We love planting food, tending to life, and sharing resources #fortheneighborhood!

So, what will you plant? Are you excited about a particular garden project you’ve been working on while at home? Feel free to use this gardening resource list compiled by Seattle Tilth and share any other gardening tips with us (link on our Eco-faith page). We’ll leave you with some words from Michael Pollan (we recommend his article about the importance of gardening, link below!):

The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.

-Michael Pollan*

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*Michael Pollan’s NY Times article “Why Bother?” from 2008

Eco-Act 002: Climate Change & What We Eat

Eat more plant-based

(at least before 6 pm!)

Relax. This post is NOT about going vegetarian or vegan. But it IS about the way many people eat.

Reflect for a moment on the last part of some popular advice from writer Michael Pollan:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Not only plants; mostly plants. Maybe this could even be stretched to more plants? Would we consider enjoying a plant-based meal in place of a meat entrée occasionally? And what’s the point?

Well, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming ranks “plant-rich diet” # 4 on its list of most impactful steps to attack climate change. Estimates cited in the book and elsewhere suggest that raising livestock accounts for 15% or more of annual greenhouse gas emissions. The Drawdown authors further note that “If cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.”* Yikes!

Obviously, the efforts of the Union family alone won’t measurably reduce greenhouse gases or global warming. So why make the effort? Because, as Pollan says, it will begin “to heal the split between what you think and what you do….”** It’s acting with hope and purpose.

And it can be delicious. Here’s a recipe from Mark Bittman’s book VB6 (vegan before 6 PM) to consider.

This might also be a great time to add some plant-based meals to the weekly menu if meat availability or prices become an issue. Whatever your motivation, let us know if you decide to try a plant-based meal for lunch or dinner!

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* Drawdown, page 39

** Drawdown, page 53