Of Birds and Bees and Unintended Consequences

Years ago, Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring" and, as scientists, we were no longer innocent. There was nowhere to hide from the damage done, the lives twisted, distorted and destroyed from chemicals we unknowing, unthinking, poured into the world around us. Birds became the symbol of her fearless documentation of ecological disaster in the making. Twisted beaks, broken eggs, empty nests.

Apparently we didn't learn enough.

And years ago, Mother Earth News, a magazine for back-to-the-landers, published a quote on the inside of its cover. I paraphrase: "We must never forget that all life on this earth owes its existence to seven inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains." I'd like to add another item to that list: bees.

Honeybees. Highly effective pollinators that are responsible for about one-third of the food we eat, according to a news article released today. These bees have been mysteriously dying in large numbers for several years, a phenomenon known as "colony collapse disorder."

I went to a honeybee training last Friday; Mary Ann Frazier, a researcher from Penn State University, cited a study Penn State recently did that found evidence of 121 different pesticides in 887 samples taken from hives where the bees vanished. The scientists found additional evidence of several diseases, possibly a result of weakened immune systems. But these bees did not just die: they left their hives en masse before dying, abandoning eggs and young bees, a serious behavioral departure on the part of a highly social insect.

No bees, a lot less food for the world.

Is there something else we need to learn before we figure out that dumping billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into an ecosystem we share with all other life on this planet, including our own families, is a bad idea?

Years from now, what will we be publishing? "Oh, sorry kids...?"

South of the North for Organics

On March 18, a bunch of people got together on a conference call. Nothing earth shattering about that. Happens all the time. But I could feel the earth move slightly—I know. I was there. The immediate result was we birthed a new entity…a brain child, a child of hope and determination for all southern organic farmers. Welcome SORCE to the world, folks. That’s Southern Organic Resource Center for Education. And it’s a whole new community—a virtual barn-raising. We are gathering our strength and our ideas and our needs about farming and eating organic in the south. And we invite you to the party.

Where is south? As Tevie Tillman from Georgia put it as this idea was being imagined into being in earlier this year…”It’s everywhere that is south of the north.” We had representatives from Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, southern Illinois, Indiana, and lots more who were invited and couldn’t come…from Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia…the list goes on. We are just the beginning. This is bigger than we are and this will grow.

At the heart of this child is our diversity. Who we are, our farming needs, our land, our weather, our soil, is just plain different! Different from northern lands and weather…different from northern soil…different from northern farmers---persnickety, sometimes, often times downright ornery.Droughty or drowning…dryland or flooded fields.

Each bioregion, each farm…has a unique personality that demands care and management. What works in higher latitudes often times just doesn’t work on southern farms. As organic farmers, we need to share what we know about taking care of this land so we grow along with it—grow and prosper. Along with our families, our communities and the people who eat what we grow or buy our organic cotton, our beef, our flowers and herbs.

Sue Baird, Missouri Organic Association, said that we need to come together and create a way to gather our strength, pool our knowledge, and give a voice to the organic south. We are building this organization because we share a love of the land wherever we are, a love that goes deep into the muck of a rice paddy, the red clay, the piney woods, the foggy mountains and dry hills, the muddy rivers and coastal plains, the green pastures and brown bayous.So here is the call, y’all! Welcome SORCE and stay tuned! We’ll be seeing you soon. There is plenty of good work to be done and it’s high time to be about it!