Want to have more friends? Especially friends who share positive values for a better world? Want to explore online participatory calendars, spontaneous events and even living closer together with people whose values and qualities you most treasure? Read on.
Recently, I set up a participatory calendar on Meetup.Com called "Conscious Living Sedona." This is a model for strengthening conscious communities which readers in other regions and states may want to consider as well. In our case, we are reaching out to an already-developed network of maybe 150 or more Sedona and Verde Valley residents who have been attending local and regional vegan potlucks. As interest in both veganism and community grows, our 3 major potlucks are getting crowded. And so we ask how can we seed new potlucks? We also wonder how can we develop inclusive ways to invite both new and old friends in our network to spontaneous or regular get-togethers? And might some of us even want to take it further by living near each other for daily contact and support?
To address all these needs, we are offering members access to a shared PARTICIPATORY CALENDAR. What this means is that all approved members of Conscious Living Sedona (who share our values) can post invitations and requests to each other, whether one time or repeating. For example," Anyone for a hike tomorrow?" Or "New Potluck Forming in VOC," or "Let's Garden Together," or maybe you would like to offer a weekly yoga class. You name it. Want to give it a try? First, read our shared values and decide if they resonate with you. Note that having a value does not mean you are expected to abide by it perfectly (we are human):
OUR SHARED VALUES
• Engaging in a community of loving, friendly people who value living lightly, sustainably, respectfully and kindly on the Earth and with each other.
• Eating healthy whole food plant-based because we see it as the most impactful way to to foster healthy lives, a healthy planet and healthy, compassionate relationships with other sentient beings.
• Living simply, with full respect for the natural world. In addition to eating healthy vegan, as much as we can we seek to reduce wasteful consumption, packaging, fossil fuels, toxics and plastics. As much as possible, we recycle, support clean,renewable energy, eat organic and vegan, and walk, bike, carpool or use other earth-friendly transport.
• Being in service to the wider community and planet. Many of us work to put on the annual Sedona Veg Fest or do educational work online or in person. Most of us have worked in service professions or projects seeking the betterment of others.
• Relating in harmonious, egalitarian, participatory, cooperative and creative ways.
• Practicing some type of open, non-dogmatic spirituality, such as meditation, self-reflection and personal growth in which we come to see ourselves as facets of a much larger awakening of humanity.
Finally, to join this group, you also need to live in the Sedona/Verde Valley area, at least part time!). :-)
Are you a local and good to go? Then ask to join Conscious Living Sedona., and let's meet up! For starters...
HOW TO MEET US:
GOOD "In-Person" GATEWAYS to meet members of this larger network currently include the:
• Quarterly Healthy World Sedona's Sunday Suppers (sign up for newsletter athealthyworldsedona.org, also for info on the annual Sedona Veg Fest). These usually feature a speaker with 50-60 attending at a home on Red Rock Loop.
• 4th Friday Conscious Living Potluck at a home in West Sedona ( on Conscious Living Sedona., holds 22, potluck followed by films and discussions)
• 3rd Sunday Food & Friends Potluck Lunch in West Sedona (posted on If you like them, ask to join Conscious Living Sedona. for 12 committed to regular support and dialogue). Possible hikes before or after.
• 2nd Friday Verde Valley Vegan Meetup (social focus, at a home in Verde Santa Fe, Cornville, AZ.). Sign up here.
HOW TO ADD YOUR OWN INVITATIONS & EVENTS:
Now, get ready for some spontenous jaunts or to start your own dream group of friends from this network. At Meetups.com/ConsciousLivingSedona, go to EVENTS and ADD NEW EVENT. You can limit the size and everyone can see who is coming.
• Just remember, if you sign up, cancel if you change your mind, so others are free to attend. (Note: Let me know as the Organizer, if you have a problem with this.)
START YOUR OWN AFFILIATED VEGAN POTLUCK GROUP?
As our numbers grow and in the interest of less driving, we encourage members of this regional group to start and post additional potlucks in new areas such as Clarkdale/Jerome, Camp Verde and the Village of Oak Creek. The closer to you, the better. For further tips on how to host a potluck, see my blog, "How to Host A Potluck." Here are two approaches you might take:
1. Consistent members, affinity groups of 12-18 who also meet for weekly hikes, meditation or discussions. After initially getting set up, you would likely want to keep your invitations private, by email or phone or agreement at meetings. You might start this with existing friends and friends of friends.
2. Round Robin Groups. Here the focus is on getting to know new people and places by rotating locations and guest lists. In other words, set it up to purposefully encourage different mixes of people each time.
TAKING IT FURTHER: LIVING NEAR EACH OTHER?
Taking it further, we also encourage like-minded people in this network (or any other) who want to enjoy and support each other with greater ease and spontaneity to move closer to each other, ideally in walking distance. Research has shown that the number one predictor of longevity and well being is the degree of social connectedness a person has. And there is no better way to connect readily with people than those in our immediate daily vicinity.
Whether we call them intentional communities, neighborhood villages, coops, clusters or cohousing, such communities have been serve their purpose best when they:
- Are held together by love, generosity, commitment and flexibility, not dogma or a strong leader.
- Have at least 8 but no more than 50 adults
- Are designed to foster spontaneous daily encounters (windows face pathways, people don't drive into garages and disappear)
- Are run by consensus drawing on effective models of communication, often getting outside advice to kickstart this.
- Have a clear, workable and affordable ways to deal with shared costs and for members to join and to leave in a financial sense.
Several physical models for living closer to each other include (in order of difficulty):
1. Form social networks of people who live within a couple of miles, as suggested above.
2. Individuals gradually acquire adjacent or nearby houses with shared backyards, frequent potlucks and other activities, sharing of tools, rides, etc. This model may work best for those who really love their present house and location, and who have developed it with sustainable features. This could also work in a new subdivision where adjacent lots are available (such as Crossroads at Mingus in Clarkdale). 3. A group pools resources, forms a partnership and purchases, redevelops and shares an existing property such as large homes with guest quarters, former retreats, fourplexes, condos or small hotels. Such places could be especially desirable for aging seniors, working families with children, singles or those without the means to buy a solo house. 4. A group gathers and defines their vision and then engages help in planning, finding and purchasing a site and building a Co-Housing Community. (2-5 years?, best with a planning group of 10 or so).There are at least 150 such communities in the US and they typically involve 20-30 households living in private units (either attached or free standing) that share a large common house for frequent meals and gatherings, with parking near the entrance, with people-friendly interior play/ social/garden areas along walkways leading to homes.. For more information see youtube videos on this topic or read: “Creating Cohousing” by McCamant and Durrett, professionals who have guided over 50 groups to successfully creating such communities. A quick search can also lead you to homes for sale in existing cohousing communities throughout the US.
Several of us in this network started meeting in January 2020 to explore Cohousing. We could just let it go, or we may just turn into an affinity group,or we may manifest any of the above scenarios. Please contact me if you are interested. For now, we are limiting the group to a more intimate size of 10 or 12 and are sorting ourselves out as we develop our vision. So far, we are agreed on vegan shared meals, conscious living values and staying in this area at least initially, especially focussing on meeting in West Sedona.
Trying to eat mostly or entirely whole food plant and based? Good for you and good for all of us. It’s great for you, great for the planet, and great for the animals!
So how to do it, easily and tastily and healthfully?
We have been at healthy vegan eating for several years now, plus vegetarians since 1970s, and lately I am finding from my own experience and that of longtimers, that simplicity is important. Plus sauces.
Learning to make some of your own healthy oil-free sauces and dressings are a great way to add nutritients as well as tastiness to the healthy salads, steamed veggies, whole grains, legume and root veggies that are so good for your body.
Recently, I did a presentation at Natural Grocers on creating a Buddha Bowl, wherein you layer greens, then grains (or other starchy guys like potatoes) , then legumes, colorful fruits and veggies, then nuts and seeds, and then… your favorite sauce.
Looking thru my favorite recipes I then came up with four good sauces (Asian SOSS, Citrus, Cashew Ginger, and Oil Free Tofu Ranch) and created them as labels that participants could tape securely with plastic packaging tape to salad dressing bottles. Wow, what a lovely and helpful step that has been in our kitchen.
I just reach in the fridge and there is a great topping not only for Buddha Bowls, but salads of all sorts, potatoes and yams, whole grains and pastas. So I looked around for some more great sauces and created a two page handout you can print out, and use in this way.
I dedicate certain jars and bottles for this purpose and whenever they are empty, wash them out and either refill them or stash them away to use later. The recipe is right there, and it’s also helpful for guests with food sensitivities or curiosity to have a list of ingredients. Plus... this way you don't have to buy dressings in plastic bottles leaching toxins into your food or even burden the Earth a tiny bit more with recycling glass ones.
UPDATE (August, 2019). Recently I expanded the scope of these labels, which include such delight as Tempeh Tuna, Bean Burgers and more. They work really well to affix to jars or other appropriate containers and make it easy to prepare and store items.
So here are now four pages of recipe labels which fit standard Avery labels as indicated. Just print on label (or regular ) paper, and cover over the label with plastic packaging tape. That way, your label stays good despite hand washing the jar when it's used up. Check it out. There is some tasty, healthy, humane and eco-friendly food here!
Life is a creative journey. Every day, each moment, each act, each though is an opportunity for creative expression. And, like actors in a vast cosmic play, together we all co-create this infinitely complex thing we call human life on Earth.
I once read that in every species there are two currents: the conservatives, who maintain what has been working so far, and the innovators, the creative explorers who try new things and who become the cutting edge of evolution. And though these forces often clash, we need both and it is a dance between them. Both have a place.
I would add to this observation, however. It’s not us versus them. I think we each have both of these forces within us: the ability to keep on keeping on, to plug away with the known, and also, the spark of the creative that drives us to try new things.
Keeping things going in the standard way has obvious benefits and limits. As for innovation, trying new things often seems to have no higher purpose other than play, perhaps play itself being how we best learn. And sometimes our most treasured innovations and ventures may not succeed as we hoped. Sometimes they create problems, as creative chemistry and industry have done.
But sometimes they can and do change the world. When Steve Jobs hired the people at Apple who created the many devices that have interconnected the greater mind of humanity, wisely, he chose those who also excelled in humanities and arts over the technocrats.
My ancestor John Adams, a founding president and a farmer, also spoke of this, pointing to the natural order of stability and security first, then innovation and play. He said that he studied politics and war and government, so that his children could study science and math and navigation and business, so that their children could explore painting and poetry and ceramics and architecture. And that is exactly what happened. I am one of the lucky descendants who got to explore the creative arts, which I did. Though we have always lived to some extenet under the shadows of the nuclear age and a time of environmental threat, most of us here are the lucky children who have been able to live creative lives in a time of abundance, liberty and opportunity.
For me, that has meant a lot of exploration of the visual arts, as well as writing. As you can see from the small fraction of my work on display here, I explored a diversity of media. I used crayons and acrylics, oils and pastels and whatever I could find. I glued spaghetti and eucalyptus buttons, sand, plaster, jewels and beans alongside pencil and paint. I explored portraits of Native Americans that seemed to draw out unhealed issues from other lives. I printed up little books and inspired sayings and sold them at craft fairs.All along, I create abstracts that remind me of the formless and infinitely creative space behind all form.
As Adams invited, I have also been at least a wannabe architect and city planner. In 1994 I designed our passive solar home in Eugene, where we lived and made a living for twenty years. To decorate our homes I tried my hand at stained glass, floral wreaths, hand painted clocks and ceramics, homemade futons and sofas, and more than I can remember. It was lovely and comforting to nest in. Home is my refuge. It is safety, comfort and that stable conservative thread that keeps life going.
As I said, I also wrote, and have done a lot of critical thinking and research about many matters. Creativity is widely curious and I think you will find this trait in many artists. With my husband Richard, a veterinarian, I co-authored a best selling Rodale book with innovative recipes that led the way to feeding home prepared diets for companion animals. As of March 2017, it is now in its 4th edition, to which I made major contributions and also illustrated.
At times I blamed this book, along with the overcast skies of Oregon, for taking over the artist in me, drawing out my left brain and opening up many business and teaching opportunities we worked on together for many years. But it has also given us both a powerful chance to impact a lot of people with messages about healthy food, about sustainability, ecology, right relationship and holistic thinking.
And that leads to another thread woven throughout this life story, not unlike the one that called to Adams. Ever since college years at Berkeley I have longed to change the world for the better. I think that has called many or most of us as well. HOW to do that has always been the biggest challenge.
Though I started as an art major, fine art seemed incapable of changing the world to really meet the social and environmental challenges of our day. Thinking it held the answers, I entered a PhD program in social psychology in 1971: change society, change the world. But soon this was clearly too stalwart and limited to silly predictable experiments you’d have to “prove” with abstruse statistics.
And so, like many of our generation, I explored social change through personal transformation and spirituality. For a while, during our 20 years in Oregon I was a licensed counselor, but that too, soon seemed too narrow and too self absorbed, leading more into the ego than beyond it.
I wasn’t sure what to do next. Meanwhile, I kept busy and helped secure our retirement years renovating real estate.
Yet inside I still longed to serve the higher good, to do what most needs doing at this point in history, AND at the same time, to follow my natural inclination and gifts to express beauty.
It is often hard to see how the threads of your life weave together when you are in the midst of it. All I knew was that about 2006 I really wanted to come to Sedona and paint and become part of the wonderful art community that is here, whose heart is the Sedona Arts Center, which will now receive 25% of sales in this show.
So we moved here. I studied at SAC and I taught at SAC. I’ve won a number of fine awards and have been in the Plein Air Festival seven times. Drawing on my experience creating events and workshops with Richard for veterinarians, I’ve created group shows with poetry readings, have had my own gallery for a while.
Mostly, I painted landscapes, thinking I would spend the rest of my life perfecting that gift as much as I could. I did focus, more than I ever have, and I feel good about the many beautiful landscape paintings and pastels that resulted.
At the same time, I soon began to integrate my interests and wrote a lot of heart felt poetry to accompany many of my paintings. I am very pleased with how these two, as well as spirituality, came together in my 2013 book, “Spirit of the Earth.” The threads of the tapestry began to join, and I hope you will take a look at it. Many people have found it inspiring, including me. It comes through me more than from me.
So, as in the 1980s in California, I again began a serious study of painting landscapes, and soon, to grow them. In the tradition of countless ancestors, I have always kept a garden, and here on the rocky dry soils of Sedona with an abundance of hungry wildlife, necessity has been the mother of invention, as it has always been in all species. This time the Muse of Creativity led to designing and building a variety of screenhouses and container gardens to grow and defend lovely greens, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic and more.
About 2012 I began offer green living, garden tours and presentations to interested people, including on YouTube. In 2014 it morphed into a monthly potluck group. This time the creative act was less about stuff and more about relationships. It became a community of people sharing an interest in creating a better world, together. Many of you, as you know, are here.
We often watch films and in October 2014 many of us saw the life changing film,“Cowspiracy.” Overnight, after learning the profound truth that a simple, healthy change of diet was truly probably the most important thing any of us can do to change the world for the better, most of us made the switch to a whole food plant based diet.
Now, each day we eat this way we each save about 1100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sf of rain forest and one innocent animal’s precious life. And that matters, because, unless more of us make this change, and soon, in ten years we could lose the Amazon to grazing and to growing livestock feed. Animals agriculture is the #1 human contributor to greenhouse gases and in the coming decades we will lose much of our fresh water supplies to its inefficiencies. If we continue eating seafood as we are, by 2050 we could fish out the entire ocean. This is not a good legacy to leave our grandchildren, nor all the life forms of this blue green jewel of a planet spinning in space.
And so now, much of my life is now dedicated to spreading the word about making this shift, through blogs, working with others, offering presentations, and creating significant changes to the 2017 edition of our Rodale book, after learning that dogs in particular, can not only adapt to but live longer and healthier on a plant based diet as well. And their dietary footprint on the earth is quite significant, especially due to the trend to feed them lots and lots of fresh raw meat. I also hope you will take a look at this latest edition, which I got to illustrate (the originals are for sale here) or at least take one of the free postcards available here. It includes a recipe that has helped one dog live to age 26, and others to advanced years as well. Also, please take a copy of my plant based diet suggestions for humans. They are simple, healthy and tasty.
So that’s my story, for now.
What can we learn about creativity from from this particular life of diverse wanderings and focused production, as well as musings upon your own?
First, we need to understand who we are. We are all highly creative beings whose every thought impacts the world. It is our very nature, because we are inseparable from the creative Source of all life, the great orchestrator of it all, which often orchestrates in ways we cannot presently understand from our little corner of the world. I think in our afterlife “life review” it will all be clear.
Second, I think we each come in with a mission. Changing the world is important to many of us, and so are many other things that we come here to learn. How to love, how to forgive, how to be patient, how to trust, how to create.
Third, every act we perform is a creative one. We don’t always seem be able to create or have choice over much of what happens in life, but we always get to choose how we react to it and what we make of it. Therein lies our happiness, and our power to transform life.
Fourth, let us honor both sides of us: the creative innovator and the tried and true conservative that keeps the food growing and the houses built and the bills paid.
Finally, let us trust the course of events and to be patient. It can be confusing to tie together diverse interests that seem to call in different directions or to find out which doors will open and which will close, and why.
To do that I have found it best to trust my heart and to respond to the doors that open and walk away from those that close. Without questioning my impulses, I have usually just followed them with confidence.
Proceeding in this way, with I know now that I have made a difference in this world, not necessarily in a way that I could ever have predicted, but I know that I have contributed to a chain of events that is helping to awaken this world. And where that leads next in terms of creative projects, I have no idea, but I will trust where my heart and life leads me.
Despite all the bad news in the world, I have also come to believe that a very positive future awaits humanity and our planet. In the still of the night, just before dawn, sometimes I awaken and I know that the best is yet to come. Many others report this sense as well, including some who have had deep experiences with the Light in Near Death Experiences. There will be hard times, for sure, but I believe we will get through it. It is the grand power of nature, of life itself, that is expressing through each of us in zillions of ways that no single one of us can truly comprehend.
Life is creative and innovative and so are we. Let us trust that.
Thank you so much for coming and for the creative acts that each of you do to make a better and more beautiful world.
Recently I impulsively signed up last minute to join my friend Gretchen Lopez at her art workshop in Altea, Spain. We haven't been abroad for ten years (the long flights and travel arrangements aren't quite the same as "Beam Me Up, Scotty," my preferred future way to travel).
People have been asking for a report, so here it is!
I had a terrific time at the art workshop, held at different spots in and around Altea, Spain, a Renaissance town on the southeast coast, just a forty minute taxi from the airport at Alicante. Our hostess picked us up, a friendly British ex-pat who ushered us into a delightful four story townhouse for little over $100 a day, overlooking the sea. Loved the terraces with their ventilating yet secure wrought iron out shutters. The stairs were a challenge for my bum knee, but that has much improved since the trip.
I loved the street and the street life. Narrow, walkable (few were driveable) with intricate designs of black, white and grey cobblestones, cats perched behind the beautiful wrought iron guards over all windows (great combo for security and ventilation). Lots more stairs, and all this no doubt contributes to the health of the locals, who meet, along with visitors galore (mostly UK and German) in the abundant outdoor cafes, which come alive about dusk.
The first day of class we met Gretchen at the top of the hill at the Iglesia de Altea, a marvelous blue tile topped structure rebuilt in the early 1900s.
This plaza was the heart of the town, surrounded by cafes and openings to the sea. Everyone was in a jovial mood and eager to get painting. Most worked in water soluble oils. I opted for a combo of pastels and acrylics, not wanting to contend with the drying process and extra space that requires in luggage, already heavy with art gear and a few food staples like our morning oats, instant beans, hummus: we brought them to save $ and also because we had read there weren't many veg friendly places in Altea (true).
Gretchen gave excellent demos each day (see this 25 minute video I created of her demo the last day at the Mercado). Most days we did reviews of our work and our intrepid group of 6 or 7 at various levels did amazingly well, each with their unique styles, some more tight and realistic, some loose as a goose.
Lanie Widmar was our local contact, a watercolorist who moved there from Sedona with her husband Russ only seven months prior. They love it and seem to be in Spain for good. She helped translate when necessary (not usually) and I also found the long-unused memories of college Spanish class surface enough to make it look like I knew something of the language (a good accent goes a long way).
Here she is with Richard at a delightful day we spent painting by the paseo that goes along the sea. Not the best beach for a swim (rocky) but I loved the architecture, once again, and did several pieces based on it.
Time went fast, as we captured street and cafe scenes and met for several meals as a class, at the top of the Crown of India (5 star and views), a Dutch run place by the sea, and the Restaurante de Artistes for our final meal.
Our class photo, taken at the Tuesday Mercado the last day:
Gretchen, next to me, is not that short, but it's so like her humble self to come down to our level!
On Wednesday morning our hostess drove us back to the airport, where we took a short flight to Barcelona, opting not to take a long drive or train ride, a choice we are glad we made. We were glad we'd chosen a nice old hotel overlooking La Ramblas, right next to the charming Gothic Quarter. That's what we travel for, not to see another sameo sameo chain hotel or another MacDonalds, right? Fortunately the hotel had excellent sound proofing. We ran the AC and slept well despite young people partying down there all night. The next morning we walked across the way to a plaza and met Marcos, who took us on a delightful E bike tour of the city, which is utterly the best way to see a bikeable city, especially when it's small (just the 3 of us). In the evening we went on a scrumptious vegan restaurant tour, also intimate, with a Norwegian brother and sister and our charming young Spanish guide, a woman.
Old Barcelona is a fascinating place, full of walkable streets that frequently open to plazas. Many buildings still have foundation stones from Roman times, as well as medieval. Definitely a party town for young people these days in many ways, which is an improvement, I'm sure, over some of the challenges of its history... the Inquistion, the Reconquista wars, Franco, etc. Many windows displayed "Si" signs, meaning, yes, I'm for Catalonian independence. Barcelona is the center of Catalonia, with a distinct language with French influence, a true crossroad between northern/western Europe and the Moorish influence from the south.This region of Spain has also fostered some very creative artists and architects, including Picasso, Gaudi and Dali.
On Friday we took a bus tour to the ancient medieval town of Girona, featured in many period films and complete with a Jewish museum and the Office of the Inquistion. No doubt a place full of ghosts, it was fascinating, this was clearly a better time to visit it in modern times, and once again, it was full of hills, stairs and narrow passages. Afterwards we visited Figueres, a village where Salvadori Dali created a monumental museum of his works, in itself a piece of surrealism.
On Saturday, our last full day in Spain, we rented bikes and headed for the large city park, where we hung out, Richard reading and resting and me doing pastels sitting on the grass. Nearby were some local Spanish ladies who meet regularly to crochet together and give away their wares to passerby, in this case crocheted flowers. The park was also full of African immigrants attempting to sell colorful tablecloths from India, as well as local families gathering and socializing. One of my favorite days on the whole trip.
The next day we took the long flight home, a day that never seemed to end, but aided by tons of free movies and decent airplane food, until at last we landed in Phoenix at 7:30 pm. Wisely, we chose to spend a night at the luxurious Embassy Suites in Paradise Valley, took a swim and bought some new spinner carryons for our next trip. Who knows? This one may be much sooner than another ten years!
In fact, Lanie and I are talking about co-teaching pastel and watercolor workshop: Altea? Provence? Italy? Hmmm.
To see the works I produced on this trip, check out the collection of Recent Works.
In Wendell Berry’s book of essays, The Gift of Good Land (North Point Press, 1981), the essay “Solving for Pattern” is one I have returned to multiple times in the past 35 years. While the book is about agriculture, it is equally about culture in general. Berry says industrial farming solutions to food production “destroy, first, the health of the soil and, finally, the health of human communities,” and that he “could just as easily be talking about sanitation systems that pollute, school systems that graduate illiterate students, medical cures that cause disease .... This is the kind of surprise that is characteristic of our time: the cure proves incurable....” He goes on to say “it is only when it is understood that our agricultural dilemma is characteristic not of our agriculture but of our time that we can begin to understand why these surprises happen, and to work out standards of judgment that may prevent them.”
Berry describes three kinds of solutions to problems:
The solution that causes a ramifying series of new problems, in which the new problems can’t be solved by the expertise that produced the initial solution. He uses the example of cattle feed lots that produce a factory-like order and efficiency, but this mechanical order immediately produces biological disorder in damaging the health of the animals, the surrounding land and watershed, adjoining ecosystems, and the economic and physical health of human communities.
The solution which immediately worsens the problem it was intended to solve – as when the problem of soil compaction is “solved” by a bigger tractor, which further compacts the soil, which makes a need for a still bigger tractor. We see similar results with drug treatments that create side effects requiring additional drugs to counteract these effects, each drug adding still more side effects, ultimately destroying the health of the person seeking a cure.
These two kinds of solutions are obviously bad, serving “one good at the expense of another” and leaving the original problem unsolved.
3. It is when “health is set down as the aim” that the third kind of solution becomes evident – a solution that causes a ramifying series of solutions, and takes into account the larger pattern or patterns within which the problem exists. In other words, the solution takes a systemic view of the world. This is the move away from reductionism that T. Colin Campbell describes in his book Whole.
As Berry says, “A bad solution is bad, then, because it acts destructively upon the larger patterns in which it is contained ... most likely, because it is formed in ignorance or disregard of them. A bad solution solves for a single purpose or goal, such as increased production. And it is typical of such solutions that they achieve stupendous increases in production at exorbitant biological and social costs.
A good solution is good because it is in harmony with those larger patterns ... the way a healthy organ acts within the body.”
When I think about the benefits of plant-based nutrition, what I see is a “good solution,” in harmony with larger patterns. It is a solution that promotes health and prevents disease. It is a solution that preserves rainforests, allows oceans to recover from animal agriculture pollutants, and fish to recover from human harvesting. It is a solution that saves animals from cruel and inhumane lives and deaths, and saves the land from the impact of industrial livestock production. It is a solution that doesn’t just stop the increase in human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, but significantly reduces those emissions. And with 18% of our GDP going to healthcare spending, it is a solution that heals our economy and frees up resources for infrastructure, education and other development.
To be sure, societal change to plant-based nutrition will cause other problems, particularly for the individuals and industries that make their livings from the production of animal products, or for those whose business is to attempt to mitigate the negative effects of these products (e.g. the pharmaceutical and sickness care industries). But these are the problems of transition, as we move away from unhealthy practices. These are problems like that of the obese person who must buy new clothes when he or she achieves a healthy weight. They are still problems that must be addressed, and they will cause difficulty, but they are ones we should welcome. As we trade harmful and unsustainable practices for those in harmony with nature (both our own nature and that of the larger world), we find solutions that build on each other, reinforcing the pattern of systemic health – in our bodies, our communities, and the natural world.
Beverly Ann Bow, co-founder, Healthy World Sedona,
Do you love gardens? I sure do and I spend a lot of my unscheduled time puttering out with the plants.
You can't do that and not eventually see that our Earth itself is a vast garden of millions of beautiful species and gorgeous designs in the form of mountains, hills, valleys and rivers. And these days we most need to tend our garden planet. We can no longer ignore the serious threats facing her soils, her waters, and her natural places, indeed her very ability to produce the essential food that we and our children must have.
No doubt we need to reduce our numbers and our consumerism, and we can certainly tend our own organic gardens, support farmer's markets and organic growers and environmental organizations. But I now believe that the greatest good we each of us and all of us can do for our lovely world is not only simple, but healthy, tasty and the most loving: to take animal products off our plates. That’s because it takes 10-20 times more resources to get the same nutrients indirectly from animals instead of directly from plants.
However, if, instead, we continue eating so much meat, dairy, fish and eggs, experts warn us this is what will happen unless we wake up soon:
We will soon reach a dangerous tipping point of climate change, a huge threat to our food supply and social order, due to droughts, mega storms, floods, unstable weather and wars and conflict from resulting migration pressures. As much as 51% of greenhouse gases are due to livestock, due to the potency of methane. That’s more than all transportation combined.
We may lose the Amazon by 2025. 91% of clearance is for crops and grazing for livestock.
By 2048 we could empty the oceans of fish.Trawlers destroy whole ecosystems every day, yet, despite reform, fish are so depleted now that many hold that there is no such thing as sustainable fishing. Most of the catch is by kill, much tossed out. Half is fed to livestock and farmed fish. Runoff from countless factory farms and fields that supply them causes huge ocean dead zones. What will this mean? Seas are major carbon sinks and oxygen generators.
With this habitat destruction, we will destroy half of all species by 2050. On our watch, we now wipe out 137 species a day, the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.
This threatens our future also. By 2050, 2/3 of us will be short of water. A third of global aquifers are already depleting, including those under California and the Great Plains. Most fresh water is squandered not on lawns but on animal agriculture; it takes 100 times more to produce animal vs. plant protein. Just one burger can consume 600 gallons of water.
By 2100 our agricultural soils may be largely gone, due to erosion, industrial farming practices, drought and high demand. Yet, vegan diets use 15-20x less land than omni diets.
We are also wasting precious fossil fuels, the basis for our society: agriculture, transportation, communications, heating, cooling, medicines, sewage treatment, goods and plastics. A vegan diet saves enough fuel to drive 45.6 miles a day, buying precious time to develop renewables.
The good news is we that can each make a huge difference and together we can shift everything.“Cowspiracy: the Sustainabilty Solution” (Netflix) shows how we don’t have to change government policy so much as the way we eat. Right now, every day, each of us can save this much simply by eating a healthy, tasty plant based diet:
1100 gallons of water
30 square feet of rainforest
45 pounds of grain (that could be fed to hungry humans)
20 pounds of CO2 equivalents
enough fossil fuel to drive some 45.8 miles
and one animal’s life (plus untold numbers of wildlife)
Based on that, just two people eating plant-based for 10 yearssaves:8 million gallons of fresh water, 5 acres of rain forest (about 15 suburban lots),164 tons of grains to feed hungry humans (a billion are currently malnourished or starving), 73 tons of CO2 equivalents, enough fuel to drive around the earth 14 times, and 7300 animals’ lives. Analyses may vary, but clearly our diets have a huge impact on our garden planet and its disappearing water, soil and species. Altogether, humanity already uses the resources of 1.5 Earths. Estimates are that, if everyone lived like Americans, it would take 3 Earths. Paleo diets for all could take up to ten Earths. Clearly, “low-carb” fad diets and our culturally conditioned choices endanger our children’s future, and very possibly their survival.
Much of my life I have worried about the fate of our planet. I've tried to do as much as I can to help out, but all else pales in comparison to the simple act of changing our diets. To me this is such empowering and actionable information.
Incalculable: Living By Our Values of Compassion
Add to this enormous toll on our planet the incalculable, but entirely needless, suffering which our diets cause to billions of farmed animals a year (some 90-99% in intense factory farm conditions we would not wish on our worst enemies). In the US, that’s 30 million chickens, turkeys, cows, sheep, pigs and rabbits every single day, 45 million marine animals, and countless wildlife displaced by feed crops and ranching (including predator and wild horse eradication). Tail docking, dehorning, castration and beak trims are all done without anesthesia, even on organic farms. Dairy cows grieve deeply over calves dragged off to cruel veal crates. Bars force sows to lie for weeks in small crates nursing piglets. Male chicks are ground alive or tossed into dumpsters to suffocate. Chickens are utterly crammed, even cage-free. Pastured/free-range labels are mostly deceptive. In the end, nearly all go to the same USDA slaughter houses, where workers testify that line speeds mean as many as 25% of cows are skinned, and countless pigs and chickens are scalded, while still conscious.
As Paul McCartney points outs, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” (more accurately, “vegan,” since dairy cows and layer chickens endure the most suffering for the longest time).
How can this happen? First, marketing and social conditioning falsely tell us we need to eat animal products to be healthy. We demand low prices and if we will pay a bit more, we are willing to believe the happy farm images printed on labels. Yet, few would do to animals what we pay others to do out of our sight to put that meat and dairy on our plates. It matters hugely to those animals, however, and ultimately to us as well, for we are all connected. It also matters to one billion hungry humans who are unable to afford grains; most are fed to livestock in order to feed another billion of us who suffer epidemic levels of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity on rich diets of animal and processed foods (see Food Choices, What the Health? and Forks Over Knives on Netflix).
Garden plates, garden world: Humans naturally love the beauty, peace and bounty of a lush garden. We love unspoiled nature, we love animals and we love our children. That is who we are and how we wish to live. And yet, the unintended consequences of our food choices not only deplete our garden planet, but also the very light of hearts and souls, as they threaten our hopes for the future we are meant to create.
But what if, instead of a dark future, we choose to create a bright one? Instead of destruction, violence and suffering, every day we can foster beauty, peace and bounty, starting on our own plates. In doing so, we express our deepest human values of caring and compassion. On top of that, it is delicious and we are likely to live longer and healthier lives (read the inspiring stories of those already doing so in the books, Healthy at 100 and TheBlue Zones)
We can do this. The plant-based movement is growing fast. If we make this shift and inspire at least one other person a year to do the same, America would be a vegan nation in less than a decade. Better yet, if all humanity goes plant based (sooner, rather than the inevitable later), we could feed 12-15 billion humans on current farmlands (or, better yet, return much land to nature). We would all live longer and in greater health and harmony. That’s the world I choose, and if you agree, I believe it is within our reach. The choice is ours, the time is now.
My main art form this last year has been so full of learning about the huge environmental impact of the way we eat upon our one and only planet. This 10 minute video is drawn on months of research, and a bit of technical learning about A-V. I hope you find it as inspiring to watch as it was to produce. Please share! Feel free share and to embed on other sites. We need to get the word out!
Here are a number of recipes and info handouts useful for people and companion animals transitioning to a healthy, humane, sustainable plant-based diet. Enjoy and share! This is a one stop reference page where you can download and print out or reproduce our recommended diets and other resources. Please help spread the word and educate others. It's fun!
(My premiere handout!) Recommended guidelines and supplements, meal suggestions for going whole food plant based in a tasty, healthy way. Feel free to copy, print and share.
Pepare your own healthy, whole food plant based mayo, sour cream, Alfredo sauce, gravies, "tuna," "chickun," creamer, dressings and more!
Note: Blue Links below are to PDFs to print out high quality labels on Avery label forms or any 8.5 x 11 paper. !: Use plastic shipping tape to adhere to jars and bottles (washable).
BACK SIDE: Reasons to go Vegan. A summary of eco, humane and health reasons for this life and world changing way of eating, with suggested documentaries and websites.
• Healthy Plant Based Meals for Dogs ( 4 recipes from 4th Edition, Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats)- Susan Pitcairn
• Plant Based Diets for Dogs and Cats - R & S. Pitcairn, with Jan Allegretti (1 page) An overview of how to feed dogs and cats a healthy, humane, sustainable plant based diet.
