To the Editor:
Turning the clock back? Maybe not quite, but good things are happening in our beautiful valley and some practices are being rediscovered that were the norm long, long ago. Today we have names like organic agriculture, permaculture and others; all of this was practiced when I grew up and it was simply called agriculture. Soil was treated with respect and not with poison.
What many environmental groups advocated 20 and more years ago is now beginning to take place. I am thankful that it is also happening here in our valley. More food is locally grown and consumed. More and more people are demanding produce and other food that is grown without poisons, in clean soil, locally and without damaging our sacred Earth. Even large supermarkets like Overwaitea are offering more and more produce and other organic food, and I saw local produce in the store once.
Recycling has also taken off. The air is a little cleaner since sawmills got rid of their beehive burners and farmers are burning their fields when venting is right, but they are still burning.
We need to do much more. We need to travel less with more efficient transportation and put an end to unnecessary air travel. We need to reduce our energy consumption and switch to renewable resources, such as geothermal heating and others. Nuclear reactors have no place in the world; the recent disaster in Japan makes this clear. Could we produce methane gas with so many cattle in the valley? Is there enough waste wood to produce electricity?
We do have some groups like the Creston Valley Food Action Coalition, for example, promoting a sustainable lifestyle, doing hands-on work. It is encouraging to see the beginning of change toward a better world and a sustainable lifestyle, but we have to work much harder to stop the destruction of our Mother Earth, our only home. From what I have learned from valley old-timers and from reading history, a simple sustainable lifestyle was the norm in the Creston Valley and in most parts of the world.
Because of all these good things happening here in the valley, my thoughts go back to more than 65 years ago when I grew up in a small farming village in central Germany in the northern Harz Mountains, where simple living, self-sufficiency and sustainability were the way of life. With today’s knowledge and technology, we can achieve that lifestyle and only have to turn the clock back partly.
Henry Dahle
Creston