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Re: Famous people who eat organic

Hi all - 

As a spiritual teacher once taught me, there are many roads up the
mountain. Not everyone gets to enlightenment the same way.  Are we going to
insist that everyone does, or we write them off and/or don't try to reach
them? Could we even get agreement on the "right way", even with everyone on
this list?  (For instance, "Are all role models bad?" and "Is all
consumption bad?" have already appeared; and we'd likely keep finding
more.) And is trying to get agreement on that one right path before acting
really necessary, possible, and/or the best use of our time? 

Rather, isn't getting up the mountain the primary goal, even if different
folks find different ways there...?

I don't think celebrities should be the primary strategy for influencing
people to go organic - and I don't think anyone else did either.  However,
given that some human beings are influenced by role models/celebrities -
which is both human and valid; and sometimes extreme and out of balance -
why not put some positive models into the stream?  What is our priority -
waiting until people meet one set of standards, one approach, before we
talk organic to them? Or using as many channels as possible in supporting
positive actions - for whatever reason the person chooses them?  Does the
culture have to change before we'll talk about organic?  Or perhaps could
talking organic in as many ways as possible help the culture change...?

Another point that occurs to me is that this is the most action this list
has had in a while. I wonder - are people on this list as willing to talk
about positive actions they are doing to reach large numbers of people in a
way that works and meets their criteria, as they are to shoot down one
approach that someone's actually putting into action?  Sometimes armchair
quarterbacks can really squelch people willing to really DO something.  It
looks a lot different when you're actually on the field trying to talk with
people in a way that matters to them.  Sometimes you find, down there on
the field, that talking in an existing language can be quite an effective
way to reach someone, rather than insisting they change everything about
themselves and their worldview before you'll talk with them.  Celebrities
certainly isn't the only language - but if someone thinks it's a valuable
one to include in the package, why not give it a try? Are we so successful
that we can just toss it out, out of hand?

I think it's quite valuable for each person to have a clear vision of what
they want to create in their own lives and in the world, and to act to help
create that.  I'd love to have all sorts of conversations on this list
about what our visions are and positive constructive ways we might create
them, both in our individual lives and our shared communal lives. But I
think being constructive includes not believing that our PERSONAL view and
approach is the ONLY VALID ONE.  If our goal is to support less-toxic ag, I
think it's to our benefit to be open to a variety of (reasonable)
approaches to reaching people to make that choice.... 

Well, those are my thoughts anyway. Hope you find them useful...

Best regards -

Patricia Dines