Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. It's been a day of thinking, listening, and writing.... and a day of digging, watering, and weeding. 

I started my morning listening to a special Earth Day program on Democracy Now. I was really inspired by snippets of presentations done at PowerShift 2011, a youth conference on environmental issues.  Van Jones and Tim DeChristopher were exciting speakers. I encourage you all to watch them online by using the links. I started my morning off with more serious awareness of Earth Day than ever before, and I carried that energy through the day and right on to writing this post.

I did get outside today. Did you? Do you have a vegetable garden? This is ours on Earth Day.

You can see that it's not the tidiest thing, but the bees love it (and we need to care for our bees!), and there really are veggies in there: chard and sorrel with mustard, kale, dill, salad burnet, peas, tomatoes, potatoes and grapes nearby (the herbs get their own place, and we have fruit trees up the hill). I make medicine from the California poppies, but don't eat the nasturtiums much - all in all an abundant healthy crowd.


Don't worry about having a perfect garden, just plant something. Plant food you can share with your dog. Growing your own is the perfect way to get your dog interested in fruits and vegetables. Dogs love to share yard adventures, so try picking and sampling and sharing tastes with your dog.

Stop using chemical herbicides and pesticides. It will make you, your dog, and your yard healthier. Pesticide Action Network is just one online resource to learn more the dangers and alternatives. We can no longer afford to pretend that these chemicals don't matter. Don't believe what the companies are telling you about safety, they're only interested in sales today, not consequences tomorrow. Just this week Pfizer has agreed to take their flea product ProMeris off the market, but it took many dogs and cats suffering irreparable harm before they did it. Our pets should not be test subjects.

We all have to be brave enough to face up to what we've allowed to happen in our society and on our planet. Start at home, with what you can control. Start with food. Eat fresh, real food. Feed your pets fresh, real food. Please!

Do you really want to just keep scooping pellets out of a bag and depend on huge corporations to have your pet's best interests at heart?  I keep up with a blog called Truth About Pet Food. Susan Thixton has dedicated herself to researching the rampant deceptions in the pet food industry. You owe it to yourself and your pets to learn about what's really going on in this industry. The pet food industry is inexorably intertwined with other major industrial production, it's not about your pet anymore.

It's time for us all to step up and take responsibility for our place on this earth. 


Go outside, feel the earth beneath your feet. touch plants, touch trees. Taste them, talk to them. Listen for the birds, watch for the bees, learn the rhythm of the natural world. Take a deep breath. Smile.