Outrageous Gardens!

We could end starvation on this planet if people learned how to plant beans! Do you know how easy it is to plant beans? 2″ apart, 2″ deep.It’s up to the people! (Jimmy Keyes, The Bronx)

Remember this old maxim, KISS?  Keep It Simple Stupid? Well, Jimmy Keyes understands how critical it is in moving out of hunger if you k.i.s.s. I’ve never met Jimmy Keyes but I like him.  And I found myself in love with most of the folks he knows.

Jimmy Keyes is one of the gardeners introduced to us in the “filmic journey” by Meryl Joseph entitled City Farmers, a deeply moving portrayal of what takes place in gardens of the inner city of New York.  K.I.S.S. are the words I prefer to live by, parent by, garden by, landscape by and promote here on this website. Not because people are inherently stupid (certain Presidents excepted) but because we, in this more technologically advanced society, tend to gravitate towards ideas or concepts or actions that are more complex, costly and difficult to attain. (Did I just define capitalism?) We believe that more is better–even if it isn’t. Which explains to me why so few organizations purporting to be humanitarian and at the same accruing millions of dollars to deal with the growing worldwide hunger issues, haven’t really been able to accomplish long-term changes. (more…)

Former President Bill Clinton has it right: “Food is not a commodity like others,” Clinton said addressing a high-level event at the UN marking Oct. 16’s World Food Day. “We should go back to a policy of maximum food self-sufficiency. It is crazy for us to think we can develop countries around the world without increasing their ability to feed themselves.”

That was a gratifying thing to read today in the Organic Consumers Organization “Organic Bytes.” Clinton underscored what this website and many other NGO’s and organizations I’ve learned from have been teaching, preaching and supporting for a long time: “While the international community is focused on turmoil in the global economy, I am extremely concerned that not enough is being done to help those who are suffering most: the poorest of the poor,” Clinton said. (more…)