I was poking around on the Daily Dose site and came across a short write up about Michael Pollan’s newest book, In Defense of Food. Well, in defense of Michael Pollan, I’ll say that the book is worth reading. Not a bad time of year to read it, either, since one of his suggestions to people who are trying to figure out how to eat well is to grow some portion of their own food. I think he really means it, too.

I was fortunate enough to hang out with him for a bit when he was in Rhode Island in February to give a talk at Brown about some of the main points in his book. What happened, actually, was that he paid a visit to City Farm, up the road from Rhode Island Hospital, where I’ve been a work-study employee from Providence College over the last couple of years. Needless to say, I was pretty psyched, but the best part was that he was excited, too. He spent a while, actually, just poking around the farm and the community garden across the street, asking questions, just kind of taking it in.

It was great swapping gardening stories with same guy who wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. He was as exited as I was to talk about gardening, as most growers usually are. Before he left the farm to head over to Brown, I had him sign a copy of In Defense of Food for me, and this is what he wrote: “For Brendan, Eat-and grow-Food.”

Grow food. That’s what stuck with me the rest of the day. But it wasn’t even the advice itself that struck me as much as it was that it was Michael Pollan’s advice. Here’s a guy who’s become a household name in environmental circles, and here are his parting words to a 22 year old about to graduate from college. What he’s saying in those few words is that one way we can make an honest difference in this awesome, exiting, although oftentimes overwhelming and downright depressing environmental movement is by simply tending to our own plot of earth.

What I’ve noticed time and again from spending time in my own garden and talking to other gardeners in the city is that we all have very different stories and very different lives, but the one place we all find common ground is in the ground itself! Some are heavily entrenched in environmental issues, and some might not think a whole lot about them, and that’s OK. Some are seasoned experts, and others, like myself, are just starting to get their hands dirty. I was lucky enough to secure a plot this season in the community garden on Somerset Street in South Providence, although unfortunately it’s been keeping me from staying focused on my daunting final exams. “But I need to get my peas in…and the chard…and the cabbage,” I remind myself.

So what it comes down to is this: there are a lot of things going on in just our little state when it comes to environmental activism, which I couldn’t be happier about, but if people out there are having trouble figuring out what they might be able to do, where they can make a difference, look no further than your backyard, or even your windowsill. When you’re outside in the garden, seeding carrots, picking tomatoes, cutting basil, you’re literally changing a piece of the world, one plot at a time. Being outside, working in the soil, eating amazing food, making friends, and being a good environmental steward. Now there’s a movement I can be excited to get behind!

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