Today I visited Fareshare South West in Bristol with members of Tranistion Bath and Green Vision. A company doing valiant things to reduce the amount of food that goes into landfill.
Having had a variety of developments and changes in my own life in the last two months I have begun to really consider where best my time is spent and what serves my own personal paradigm shift (and therefore the planet) towards more truth and beauty in my life. For me this means more community, raw food, connected relationships and time and space to learn and move towards wisdom.
What I saw at Fareshare shocked me. Whilst one can understand figuratively and conceptuly how much large scale food production and distribution throws away, until you see a warehouse with only a very small proportion of this food in I don’t think it is truly comprehensible. This is a systemic issue that whilst companies like Fareshare, Supermarkets, Distributors and individuals are beginning to solve in terms of putting more food to good use, I wonder whether we are asking the wrong question and devoting time and energy to maintaining the status quo.
Firstly large scale food distribution is fatal flawed in terms of the economic benefit of wasting food. Any system that has it built in that it is cheap to throw away food and possible in terms of resources is unsustainable in a world where people go hungry every day. Secondly a lot of the food I saw has limited nutritional value. I love fresh, raw, local produced food so perhaps I am biased. However I do believe that giving away plastic multi packaged Nestle goods is not the answer I am looking for to make the planet a sustainable place to live.
The question I am asking myself now when I begin to think about getting involved with something new is that does the service/product being offered actually serve to support and replicate an old way of doing things. Does the work being done mean that if the world suddenly changed very quickly the people involved would be resilient and ready for this change? Is it radical enough - is what is being done already in the new paradigm for life or is it serving to reform and/or support change in the existing paradigm. There is more to consider on this and I am grateful to have my eyes opened to more questions and a possibility to be with the overwhelming change that needs to take place.
