A Word About The Oil Spill

Here’s what I know: Over a month ago an apprentice friend of mine making light conversation in the garden asked me what I thought about the oil spill in the Gulf. That was the first I’d heard of the accident at all, but yet only a few days after the spill itself. Since then I have read only sparse headlines and heard only quip cable news blurbs on the television in the hotel bedroom during our trip to L.A. last weekend. The general consensus it seems is that it’s BAD and will only get worse, but the scope is yet to be realized by many. How will it have an impact on my life here in Santa Cruz? How will it affect you at home? What about the Gulf Coast? I haven’t got an answer.

My response: Some say “what’s the problem?” and some say “who’s to blame?” The issue is deeper than that. A million times—THE ISSUE IS DEEPER THAN THAT. I don’t think we have to know much information to understand the immense shock that an incident like the BP oil spill will cause to our world. You can feel it. Our planet will suffer and with it our culture will suffer too. Our values supported that accident to happen. We humans as people are the sole cause for this great act of devastation. I can hardly live for that. I am also not about to get self-righteous—my way of life has always been entirely dependent on oil for fuel. Consuming oil also isn’t the worst thing I’ve done either; I drive cars FAST.

What I felt when I heard about the oil spill and imagined the devastation felt as common as any truly disheartening news. Unfortunately I think we get that a lot these days—like the mining accident in West Virginia earlier this year. What I feel is sadness and remorse and a little bit of fear; maybe even a lot. Most of us are willing to admit that we feel the same. Others dismiss the issue as if it was not a problem, or maybe that the problem is not for us. It seems pretty heinous to think that way, if there were any thought to it at all. But I am willing to bet that any person who has thought about their values and has the courage to stand up for them would not be willing to play the devil’s advocate for the sake of argument. The truth is clear that what happened is wrong. If it doesn’t feel wrong then someone has sacrificed their values to feel right.

Here’s where it ties in to farming: Someone asked us to write this entry because they were curious how the way we engage with farming has shaped our perspective of the BP accident. Both Mer and I were equally as uninformed when the question arose and it was a while before things really fell in to place to write this out. My stance is that in any instance where a decision is made that sacrifices the core values of what feels right and wrong there are victims, and to not acknowledge those victims is also a sacrifice of value. Most of the apprentices here, and I dare say all, have at some point thought long and hard about their values and have concluded that this way of farming, or to farm at all, is consistent with their values, and we all hope that is good. Convention tries to teach us of new values and we readily fall in to them, but sometimes the convention hides the damaging effect of the action. Perhaps if we had the same knowledge about the effect oil has had on our global culture when we started drilling we would not have been so eager to build the infrastructure that now nearly controls our whole lives. Anyone who still chants “drill baby, drill!” may not relate and they continue living as the convention dictates.

Here we are constantly checking our values for consistency and nothing is set in stone. The way that we respond to the questions of life are predisposed to the values of convention, but in breaking that mold by truly thinking rather than simply listening has helped us feel good about life; and it has brought us here together. Nobody wants to cause an accident, whether you are a BP executive or a self-employed organic farmer. But nobody should sacrifice the value of life, their own or others, for the sake of a bottom line. The danger is not in how decisions will affect us directly, but in how it will affect others. And instead of ignoring or writing off the problem of values we need to promote life and happiness through the general well-being of the entire global community and not just our own communities or ourselves. If we cannot do that then we are committing evil, and boy you know it when you feel it.

Guy