SEEDS FROM PLOT 509

     As we move into the future we are losing more and more fuel resources. Transporting vegetables and fruit is becoming more and more expensive. As a culture we need to re-acquire of ourselves our race's age-old skills.

     However, imagine a conversation, where instead of responding to the gift of a homegrown tomato by saying "ooh, a homegrown tomato," one could say, "hey, thanks, and here, try this new variety of zucchini, its shaped like a ball!"


     I am quite disturbed by the radically growing overpopulation. Sixty percent or more of children are obese, and they think soda pop and potato chips are part of a balanced diet. For most of them, exercise consists of looking for the TV remote and frequent trips to the refrigerator and pantry. If asked where their food comes from, a reply would most likely be - "from the store."

     During bad times, like the depression of the 1930's and World War II, people still retained skills of earlier generations for gardening. Their gardens became survival gardens and later victory gardens. But now, when a major disaster, say a hurricane like Katrina happens, people resort to looting convenience stores. Granted one can't garden under water, but perhaps living where there is less likely of flooding should factor into everyone's decision.


     Because of this, I envision a new kind of curriculum for our future generations. This would include: The Art of Bread-Making, Yogurt is my Friend, and Gardening 101. I can see learning about how to space the planting of seeds, how to start beneficial flowers indoors, as well as how to balance a checking account or how the three branches of our government work.

     Every home would have an indoor nook with grow lights or even a greenhouse to start seeds and to maintain salad greens through the winter. Every home would also have a nice sized plot in the yard for gardening. It would be expected that all the children would find a special vegetable to focus on and enter in friendly competitions at the annual county fair. We would all be able to recite the nutritional values of each of the vegetable groups and the care they would require to grow.

     As climates change and available land uses change, imagine being able to take our innate gardening skills off planet and into space. There would be rotations of workers who all know the value of growing a viable plant within the environment of metal walls of spinning space wheels.(Gerard K. O'Neill, The High Frontier.)

      It would please me immensely to know that my children would have a healthy future including plants, and hopefully even be able to live in space. Ideally, we all should be able to live in space and save our planet for a global park and take turns being planetary stewards/park rangers. (See the movie, Star Trek V, The Final Frontier.)

     By Aspen Marks