Reflections on the ‘Red Book’: Living simply
Brian Baxter reflects on Quaker faith & practice 25.01
The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth now to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.
John Woolman, 1772
Quaker faith & practice 25.01
Never before have these words been so important. Our world has never before been so impoverished as it is today, and we don’t seem to be able to halt this process. The Quaker way does, however, give the world some hints on how to help (Advices & queries 41): ‘Try to live simply’. This is surely one of the best ways to help our world. Eat organic food. Source organic food from the shops. The more that people ask for organic food, the more farming will change to organic food production.
Today much of our food is produced by industrial farming. This is not good for the soil and it does not yield the necessary nutrients for health. Only recently the government suggested that we should each eat ten items of fruit and vegetable daily now, instead of five, which shows that they are aware that the public are not getting sufficient minerals and vitamins in their diets. Another government report, A study on the mineral depletion of the foods available to us as a nation over the period 1940 to 1991, shows how impoverished our food has become. Ever since artificial fertilisers were discovered some 150 years ago, the life in our soil has suffered. Farmers have come to rely more and more on artificial chemicals to produce our food, instead of our old, established methods of good husbandry, which supplied the natural fertility and protection against diseases, caring for the land and the creatures on it.
Industrial farming, often done by contractors, treats the land as if it were a factory, calling the soil ‘dirt’ instead of valuing it as the incredible ecosystem of which we know very little. The soil beneath our feet is an essential web of life and yet we treat it shamefully, pouring over it some of the most harmful chemicals, destroying bird life, bees, butterflies, worms, moles, hedgehogs and, in fact, potentially the whole of the natural kingdom of life. This is one of the greatest errors of our time and is why we should reassess the chemicals used and industrial farming should be called to account. Farming should be about producing food that is good for people’s health and the environment. This is why organic farming is so necessary. It is the fertility in the soil that is so important, and it is this which is now weakened.
An organic farmer knows that the first condition is to work with nature to create fertility in the soil and from that first condition to grow produce which will feed and ensure the health of those who eat the produce. At the same time, it is important to be able to maintain the fertility in the soil without exhausting the natural resources, leaving something for future generations. Industrial farming does none of these things and only weakens the soil.
A final thought: every mouthful of organic food helps to save the planet… and to save you!
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