Natures Abundant Garden

BRIGHTEVERYDAY Natures Abundant Garden

We have an abundance and rich variety of fruit and vegetables crops throughout the UK, continuing fine traditions, centuries old. Travelling throughout the land entices us with a kaleidoscope of colours, and rich textures, venerating agriculture, in sowing, planting, growing, harvesting, reaping, collecting and storing; they each pay homage to a multitude of often traditional skills, dedication, innovation, and industry of farmers and growers. Witness the tractors, mechanical harvesters, the labours of an army of manual fruit pickers, just like poetry in motion. It is a glorious study in natures gifts, with, I may say, plentiful rewards, soliciting images, smells, scents, aromas and vistas of rolling fields, hillsides, orchards and gardens; they conspire to pepper and flavour the landscape, and excite our most innate senses. They are rich and diverse; they symbolise growth and regeneration, and suggest a harmonious act of union, generosity, and provision. It is an arcane, and symbiotic relationship, nurturing humankind as the sublime provider. Ignore this ancient relationship with nature at our peril!

Contrast such bountifulness of nature, with the industry of fast food, of junk food, of expediency, profligate over-consumption, and commercialism. An indiscriminate avalanche of fast foods and drinks from the US, has saturated world markets, and destroyed rain forests, natural habitats, and cycles of nature. Hardly an act of benevolence, rather, one of judicious commercial exploitation, it has infiltrated the psyche of adults and children alike, with profligate, and targeted advertising. Such corruptions come with serious consequences, significantly, diabetes and cancers caused by overweight and obesity, affecting often the most vulnerable in society; those in poverty and deprivation, children, through the constant exposure to advertising in social media, television, and hoardings, to name but a few! How, and why, did we allow this imported obscenity, and encourage the home-grown varieties, to spread into our food and drink culture? Perhaps ignorance, apathy, abdication of parental responsibilities, convenience, idleness, or, a lack of prudent, judicial interventions!

Rather than dwell on the aberrations of neglect, consumerism, and commercial greed, what future defiance, and interventions, can we generate amongst the good, and the wise to eradicate this exponential threat to the health and well-being, of society at large? Expose the proliferation, and health risks, of junk foods and drinks, shaming and naming their producers, and merchandisers; promote the alternatives, offering natural healthy nutritional foods, drinks, and supplements, sustainable, and of course, home grown. A wholesome family of farmed vegetables, fruits, and herbs, they collectively engender an ethos, and understanding, a knowing, and subscribe to a healthy change in habits. They champion our very sustenance from soil, sea, and air, and create in all of us, respect, interest, passion, endeavour, and pride, in the regenerative, intrinsic, health, and importantly, the spirit of the nation.

We have perfect growing conditions for an abundance of produce, we have private gardens, and commercial gardeners and growers. We also have the means of production, and substantial lands for division, and participation in a new partnership; allotments created nationally, with modest tariffs, forging new partnerships, diversity, enterprise, and vision. With a Third runway, for example, at Heathrow no longer required, especially with the change in lifestyles and habits, or should one say judicious awareness, imagine the tract of land available, for such activity! A blaze of incandescent colour, hundreds of bower allotments, surrounded by shrubs and trees, all managed by an egalitarian co-operative, jointly sharing the responsibility, and pleasures, of growing, and conviviality. Consider the environmental impact, indeed the spiritual and aesthetic munificence, of such public commitment, participation, and dedication, and the shared excitement in such an altruistic adventure. It may offer direction to those introverted Metropolitans, seeking an esoteric foundation, and transition, to a new life!

This commonwealth of unbending effort and imagination, replicated throughout the land would stimulate, and endorse a new energy, and vitality, in sustainability. Let Regions and Local Councils release lands for the common good, a worthy and exalted application of resources, rather than the proliferation of our common land for nebulous development, or nefarious double dealings by dodgy, self-obsessed property “squirrels”. Imagine, plots, or strips of arable land, perfect for the cultivation of foods, for personal consumption, or for local markets and beyond. No more planning blight, pandering to a despotic culture, rather the dispossession of the “Shed” and supermarket culture, and mentality, omnipotence, and collusion.

Let us rejoice in the local Farmers Markets, selling directly to a long-suffering people; we deserve much more, a socialisation of the most basic human obligations, acknowledging the intrinsic values of equality and democracy. There is, of course, in most cases, no question of ownership of land, indeed significant “parcels” of land are publicly owned, but sold without our sanction, or approval; they are often sold, or auctioned off, by an unsophisticated body, bereft of idea, or indeed, the thought, of what harm it may inflict on lives, our communities, our towns, and cities! Now is the time to redress the balance, put the public good in the highlight, and forever banish the ineptitude of small minded bureaucrats, their myopic vision, and cosy relationships; let us invest in the visionaries and participants, who seek to connect, and democratise innovation, effort, and industry, at all levels. Let our communities flourish again, in vibrant colour, as a rich tapestry, rising from the ignominy of commercialism and greed.

The importance of individualism, with a collective spirit, in a new connected world, has never been so appealing and urbane!