let's see where this goes...

At the time my sister introduced me to Macrobiotics (Latin for big life) in the 80s when we were both living in Toronto I embraced it with a fanaticism that I had not known possible for me. As I became aware of its history* and philosophy however, I was a bit confused when I found that the community was aspiring to a rural Japanese diet of basically rice and seaweed. The direction is very clear that in order to maintain a balanced connection to our immediate environment we are supposed to be making dietary choices informed by these guidelines: fresh, whole foods, locally grown, in season (with small amounts of fermented preserves as condiments) and pesticide free. In any large North American city that would be cheeseburger and pizza I joked/rationalised. In retrospect, I felt the need to justify the reality that I never was able to kick these habits. Now that we know that wheat and dairy products contain opiate-like exorphins not quite as addictive as heroin, I can forgive myself. But seriously, to be following the principles would actually mean researching the pre-conquest indigenous diet and working towards making an analogous choice available again.

Around this same time I came across the original classical version of the Oath of Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, that modern physicians swear to/on. Along with the expected issues of confidentiality and refraining from making inappropriate advances on patients and their families I was dumbfounded by the following:

• "I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment"
• "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect"
• "I will not use the knife"

Clearly Doctors have to be complete hypocrites to lay claim to his ethical standards.

While residing in Toronto I was a member of the Karma Co-op, my neighbourhood food co-op, and we had a magazine section that carried a selection of alternative periodicals. One of the events I always looked forward to was the arrival each month of the, "New Catalyst Journal" from Lillooit, Gabriola Island, British Columbia. I would read it from cover to cover and every article, no matter how local the issue being addressed, embodied a perspective that resonated deeply with me. In 1988 the community that produced the Journal hosted the 3rd North America Bioregional Congress (NABC III). The proceedings from the Congress were advertised and I ordered a copy. Upon receiving it I was struck by the work of the MAGIC Committee, standing for: Mischief, Animism, Geomancy and Interspecies Communication. Their role in the Congress was to stand in for the other than-human world: rooted beings, water beings, winged beings and four legged beings at the closing plenary sessions. I made the decision to attend the following Congress in Maine in 1990.

It was there I met Peter Bane and learned about permaculture.

Inspired by this information I returned to the home (bioregion, watershed and ecosystem) of my birth for good in 1994 and immediately set out to "discover" (my owning class, white privilege talking) what our Trini bush had to offer as edible.

The Orinoco watershed bioregion

The St Ann's watershed

*As the legend goes, when Michio Kushi, a young, well to do,  Japanese man is diagnosed with  Tuberculosis in the period between the last two European tribal wars he is sent to live out his remaining days in the pleasant surroundings of an expensive rural sanatorium. At some point his attention is drawn to the life of the peasants working their fields nearby and the question arises, "how come they are so healthy and I am so sick." He decides to go out and meet with them and develops a relationship where he is welcomed to eat with them and becomes acquainted with the philosophy behind their diet. He adopts their  lifestyle and in time his consumption goes into remission and he returns to his family. He decides to study medicine and specialises in lung diseases. Upon graduation he sets up a clinic on one floor of a high-rise building on the outskirts of Nagasaki. His patients are put on a traditional rural Japanese diet. Following the dropping of the Atomic bomb on his city in 1945, the US marines were sent in to investigate the consequences of their scientific experiment and collect data. What they found is that everyone in that building was suffering from radiation sickness except the patients on the Doctor's floor.

Isn't this phenomenal? A healthy human being actually radiates such energy as to act as a shield to incoming radiation! I was blown away when I first learned it.