The Harvest

The nights of the 18th or 19th (depending on where you are in the world) this month have a very mystical and special meaning that few care to look into. It is within these nights that the moon is full before the autumnal equinox on the 20th; the day that marks equality in the length of day and night. From here on out, our days will shorten and nighttime will grow longer, transitioning into winter. These last two full moons have given farmers throughout the years a greater light so that they can work on harvesting the fruits of their labor, therefore, it is called the Harvest Moon.
As a child, I remember feeling so small when I stepped foot into my grandfathers garden. The rows of stalks that produced some of the juiciest corn towered above me as I walked through it. The pumpkins that would be as round as my chubby-self seemed like boulders, hidden away in the Rocky Mountains that had been tossed down from peaks by giants. Not only did he have a garden that would produce vegetables for grandma and him, but his small orchard gave sweet fruits of apples and pears that would become pies and cobblers. And like every good farmer does, he composted all that he could to bring back rich nutrients to his clean soil. He didn't have any cattle or animals, for all I knew he didn't have the time or patience for them, but what meat he could bring in by his two hands he did through hunting big game. For the most part, he was a sustainable man, and I wanted to be like him.
Now that I am an independent adult, I have come to realize the importance of the foods we eat. Largely produced documentaries like Food Inc. and small productions like La Surconsommation on Vimeo have all casted a shadow on the horrors of our current food productions. Big names like Tyson are being held accountable for their treatment of animals and others like Monsanto for their roll into the chemically produced preservatives and fillers that nearly all our foods contain. It is not the FDA or federally funded organizations that are calling bullshit, however, but individuals who have realized that through our current eating habits and ignorance to see the flaw in this system, we are malnourished. Malnourished of heirloom nutrients. Malnourished of virgin flavor. Malnourished of basic human rights. Malnourished of the truth.
The question now is not how we can tear down the establishment through our "rights as citizens," because in reality, the FDA has been buried underneath the corporate corruption that haunts our society. No matter how much we scream and yell, there will always be a suppressant on our voices. Then how are we supposed to show we care and that we won't stand for it? With the use of something that speaks more in our world now, and has ran it for a while; cold hard cash. We can show our numbers with the decrease in theirs. It's hard, especially as a college student trying to live upon a strict budget, to pass up that bag of chicken that is almost half as much as the free-ranged meats, but in the end, isn't our health worth it? Isn't our happiness in knowing that what we consume is of better quality, better nutrients, and better treatment, worth the extra dollar? Boycott the big names, buy local, buy better, and in the end, feel better. And if you are blessed with land that mother nature has given you, grow your own, be sustainable, live as if the supermarket didn't exist.