Mt. Sophia Ideas

Perry Mears II, who was homeschooled back in the dark ages (otherwise known as the 80s), is currently a Lecturer in Music at Lee University in Cleveland, TN.  He holds degrees from Lee University and the University of Maryland, College Park, and is also an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival and School.  In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Perry serves as the pianist at the Mt. Olive Church of God and works with The Greenway Table, a local non-profit.

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While living in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2008, I was confronted with an idea: local eating.

In C-Ville, as in many other cities around the country, there is a push to “Buy Local.” There it took the form of restaurants whose menus depended on seasonal produce; a beautiful, bountiful farmer’s market filled with food and drink that was created in ways that honored God’s Creation; and grocery stores and markets that sourced locally, when possible.

Since that summer, I have been on a quest to eat locally.

I have joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, where I get eggs and produce each week from a local farm.   I shop at farmer’s markets.  I support the grocery stores in my area that source their products locally and regionally (and fair-trade for imports).

I also serve on the board of directors for The Greenway Table, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing quality (read: organic, tasty and sustainably-raised) food for our community and to educating young people about the origins of their food.  We run a summer day camp, instructing middle-school students in the art and science of growing, harvesting and preparing fresh vegetables. We also are working with the local school system to introduce curriculum that focuses on food sources and healthy eating habits.

“What does this have to do with homeschooling,” you may ask.  Or, “What does this have to do with changing the world?  Aren’t these ideas a bunch of yuppyish hogwash, trendy, simplistic answers to bigger problems?”

Hardly.  Joel Salatin, dirt farmer, hero of the localvore movement and homeschooler, has called local eating- “opting out.” As in, “I am opting out of the industrial food industry.”

And, as Salatin has pointed out, this decision to “opt out” is easier for homeschoolers, since they’ve already opted out once in choosing to homeschool.

I like this term “opting out.” Many homeschoolers have already opted out of things that are culturally normative: choosing to not have a television or cable; making decisions about the kinds of media you allow into your home; most importantly, opting out of  school systems so that you can educate your children at home.

These decisions aren’t about sheltering your kids from the reality of the world.  Hopefully, these choices to opt-out of cultural practices that are damaging has the effect of moving us out into the world with more clarity, with more confidence in who we are.

These choices to be different, to stand out against a pervasive cultural tide, far from making us socially irrelevant, make us catalysts for change, persons for whom a history of choosing (as opposed to letting things happen) has empowered us to make changes in our world.

So, you’ve opted out once.  Or twice.  Or three times.  I want to encourage you to opt out again.  Plant a vegetable garden in your back yard.  Join a CSA.  Frequent a farmer’s market.  Teach yourself to can.

These choices matter immensely and can provide wonderful topics for family discussion about food, its sources and our responsibility to care for and enjoy the bounty of God’s creation.  More importantly, however, they provide us, as individuals and families, with the chance to stand out in an otherwise homogenous culture.

Related posts:

• The Importance of Having a Personal Philosophy
• A Laundry Room Life?
• Rituals and Communities