My weekly articles have explored the importance of moving the field closer to the table, and doing so in an ecologically sound manner, and here was an example of someone, Traute Klein, who was living proof of what I had been trying to demonstrate, and her reward was to be assaulted by officaldom for achieving that which those officials ought to admire. I was appalled.
After working through these emotions, I began to, once again, consider, what is a community? I've been a community organizer for a number of years and have applied my skills to such issues as community food security on many occasions. One of the reasons that I feel bad things happen and seen good intentions too often fail is that we take too narrow a look at what a community is, especially when we consider where food comes from and the other lifeforms we depend upon if we are to eat.
A thriving community is one where biodiversity is valued for itself and we all strive to create a harmonious enviroment. When we forget our neighbours, such as the monarch butterfly, because their source of food is listed as a noxious weed and we work at eradication rather than cohabitation, we build a small place that may make it difficult for any of the inhabitants to thrive.
We tend to forget the role that pollinators upon whom our food supply depends play, and the positive function that a natural backyard performs in encouraging the pollinator population. If we are to grow our own food organically we need to attract the creatures who assist the plants to reproduce. We forget or, perhaps worse, choose not to know, that when we live in this larger community, there are endless learning opportunites available that can greatly engage a child's curiosity. The creative energy that a natural garden can generate within a child has a positive effect upon the child's development.
If people who live in urban centres are ever going to achieve food security, we need to redefine community to include all the lifeforms which, when they work together, create a space that is as beautiful as it is peaceful and manages to supply us with food at the same time. The officials in Winnipeg who destroyed Traute's garden attacked the very diversity that a healthy community demands.
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