Little Farma - Signs and Symptoms

Like Spring's seeds sprouting, signs of "Little Farma" will soon be coming to sidewalks, parks and places all around my Nashville town and I suspect your community too.  With genetically modified products on grocery shelves and chemicals in everything, it's more important than ever to know where your food comes from, what's put on it as in pesticides and what's put in it as in fertilizers. 

I love Little Farma's focus on the local, not so much because I'm anti-Monsanto or anti-anything, but because I find great joy and aliveness in the sensory experience related to growing things, from digging in the dirt, to watching seeds break through to light, to the color and texture of foods at my local farmer's markets to meeting the young men and women with such spirit and heart, the new generation of farming.  

Since the season of "Little Farma" is upon us here's the signs and symptoms I've discovered years prior juxtaposed to Big Pharma. First let's compare and contrast.

* Farmaceuticals are packed with nutrients.  Pharmaceuticals are packed with chemicals.

* Farmaceuticals come from Mother Earth. Pharmaceuticals come from labs (after having gotten Mother Earth's secrets through plants.) 
 
* Farmaceuticals alter the mood without addiction as a risk.  (Okay I admit, there is an addictive quality I've found in growing things but aren't some addictions good?) 

 
* If for some reason you need to find new health insurance, the only pre-existing condition related to Farma-ceuticals is a willingness to get dirty.  Pre-existing conditions related to pharmaceuticals result in higher premiums or no coverage for that specific condition. 

As for the "Little Farma's" symptoms, these may just be related to me but I don't think so.  (This is where you imagine me speaking in that hurried, low and serious tone heard at the conclusion of drug commercials.)

Symptoms and/orSide effects include most of the following.   

 

Time spent in front of the television and computer may decrease. One's home as well as friendships may be neglected. Warm, bubbly, tingling sensations are not reason for panic.  These are the first signs of extreme peace and wholeness.  Food may taste different. This does not suggest taste bud disturbance. You are actually discovering how vegetables are suppose to taste. Farma-ceuticals may result in random episodes of philosophical wonderings and creative surges. Farma-ceuticals carry a risk of heart break due to the interaction of bugs and fungus on growing things. It is advised to engage and enjoy the process without attachment to outcome. If you experience any of the above, do not consult your doctor. 

 

So with the sun finally popping out in Nashville, get yourself outside, get earth under your nails, make way to the farmer's market and check out Local Table! magazine on-line and in print for farm-finds all around Middle TN. 

 

Now I've got to get outside myself. 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 5 April 2013

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

And here's the original "Little Farma" story from Summer 2009.