Backyard Garden 06/29/09

Recently I have been using ‘Green Peace’ as a sign off to letters and emails. I like it because it puts together the two sides of the web page www.nonviolentcow.org, the growing side and the nonviolent side. However, I fear that after awhile, like other phrases I have used in the past, ‘family values’ and ‘my friends’ it will become overused and lose its originality.

While it is still fresh I would like to share some green peace initiatives. First is an organization called “SHARE”, a nonprofit food- buying club that brings people together to strengthen community and share healthy affordable food. Anyone can join SHARE, rich or poor, and the cooperative allows us to purchase healthy food, meat, vegetables, fruits and much more, at a savings of 30%−50%. SHARE has gone green. Last Saturday I purchased at affordable prices three pounds of organic ground beef and a large box of organic fruits and vegetables. Certainly one can purchase these items, as well as other fresh items, at grocery stores, but not at these prices. I encourage people in need and others who have means to purchase good food to join SHARE.

The items in the big box of organic fruits and vegetables for only $15 varies month to month. Last Saturday the box contained many healthy organic foods, but two of the items were ones we would not normally purchase in the store. One was small organic apricots with which my wife using Laba, a Middle Eastern yogurt, made a delicious dessert, and the other one was an organic beet, which my wife pickled for dinner that night. Both dishes were delicious as well as healthy and of course affordable.

Soon I will be adding pictures of the Products from the India of Mahatma Gandhi that our friends from India brought with them. Using Fair Trade stores in the area I hope to be able to share these wonderful products that are practical and yet symbolic of a way of life with many.

Today I found out that the book To Wisdom Through Failure by my late friend is available and in Milwaukee can be purchased at Peace Action or ordered at the web page from the publisher. I gladly share this autobiography with everyone.

Today I heard an example on public radio of the opposite of sharing green peace. A young woman with cancer was talking about how after receiving chemotherapy for her form of cancer she took a genetic test to discover what the prognosis of the cancer returning was for her. After receiving not so good results she asked her doctor if she could take the test again with another company to verify the results and get a second opinion. He said that was not possible since the company doing the test held a patent on the cancer gene that was being tested. The radio interviewer asked for clarification. She said other companies had the ability to do the testing but were unable to do so because a private company patented this particular cancer gene.

This reminds me of a story my Indian friends told me of how an American company was trying to patent cow urine since it has value in creating medicines. The opposite of sharing green peace is privatizing items that are for the common good.

I call it green peace or I say that my web page is ‘profit free’. In India the trade name for marketing the products from the India of Gandhi is one that Mahatma Gandhi made up. It is ‘Sarvoday’ which means ‘welfare of all.’

I better keep my turning cow dung into rich soil experiment on the quiet or else someone who does not believe in sharing green peace may try to own it.

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