Forgiving

Have you ever ask for forgiveness?  Really and sincerely?  I have.  I believe that every day our world is waiting for us to ask for it, and change the way we treat it.  What I mean is that when we’ve taken advantage of and damaged our land, air, water, food sources and if we stop or even dramatically reduce our hurt to our earth, it will immediately react and start to begin responding to our better care.

The lessons we have learned about taking care of the ones we love or the land that takes care of us were sometimes a long time coming. The biggest part is that they come, and not too late, and are not forgotten, and a slip back into the old, bad habits.

Just consider, a place in the country where you grew up and loved.  Or the place in the country you past by while driving or saw on TV.  You get a job, marry your sweetheart, have a few kids… and now are further away from that place.  In many cases this is normal and is part of the necessary life decisions.  There comes a time in many of those lives where they wish for the simpler times and the goodness of the place and all it had and still has to offer.

Many months ago I wrote about communities creating a sustainable food source, while growing not only the food locally, but growing the community and the relationships within it.  The food growth impact is not solely due to the misuse of the land but as you may or may not know, the cost and affect of the chemicals applied to it and its transport.  The cost and loss of food during transport due to spoilage is a major factor as well, that would be diminished in the local or county Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) sustainable options.

Even if the Sustainable Agra Community needed (it doesn’t) to be supported by the immediate community in which it supplies, the little cost would enormously outweigh the positive trade-off which it provides.

I have said it before, and I will say it again.  The sustainable local Agra community will sustain the local economy, the adults, children, and set a great example for all other communities.  Think of it, you raise your children in the same place you have your food grown. The “learn how it’s done” via school Agra classes, both in the classroom and on the farm.  The towns and counties coming together to trade or barter their unique produce to continue to build the relationships and surrounding communities.  And, not lastly, for you out there who remember “where’s the beef”, there can be and are small sustainable beef as well as poultry and pork farms which will also sustain and partner in the Agra Community.

Forgiveness can come in many ways, shapes, forms, flavors and feelings, and it’s free to receive.  From our Lord and Savior, our spouse, friends and our land.  A change for the better in our behavior and how we cultivate the post forgiveness relationship is needed in order truly accept and grow in it healthily.

120,000,000 million acres of corn and soybean crops are grown each year.  No nutritional or human sustaining value.

                                                                   Below are the top 5 crops 

                                 Billions of dollars                                                         Millions of pounds

Crop	1997	2014	Crop	2003	2013
Corn	$24.40	$52.40	Corn	512	708
Soybeans	$17.70	$40.30	Soybeans	134	178
Wheat	$8.60	$11.90	Wheat	128	116
Alfalfa	$8.30	$10.80	Sugar beets	61.4	59.6
Cotton	$6.10	$5.10	Potatoes	41.6	39.6

We owe it to ourselves and our families and our generations to come, to have a greater care for our food, how it is grown, the varieties and all the flavors in which God has provided for us all.  Thank you.