Coronavirus mania - A message of hope and a call to action in this time of crises

One positive that I’m hoping will come out of this current crises is that people will begin seriously reconsidering how unsustainable our currents systems are, and how vulnerable we are unless we decentralise these systems and bring the production of our food and goods back to the local grass roots level where they belong.

At this point, with so much of our daily products and goods coming from China and from giant multinational corporations, if anything happens to the supply chain (such as this virus) we are extremely vulnerable.

I see two potential outcomes happening from all of this. One is that the economic ripples of shutting down the entire planet will eventually crush small family businesses and local trade, and all that will be left to control everything will be giant multinationals, who have enough money and resources to make it through times like these. This is the outcome I believe that certain sinister factions of the human race are trying to bring about, by exploiting this current crises in order to go for a massive power grab. This would centralise their control over our currents systems on an unprecedented scale, and is something I’ve been trying to point people’s attention to in recent blog and Facebook posts.

Or alternatively – and this is the outcome I’m really hoping for, especially as my family run a small cafe – everyone will fully realise the importance of local supply chains, as well as remaining vigilant about global power grabs, and will throw their complete support behind local business’s and local production.

In the past, producing things on a local level was completely normal, and nearly everyone captured their own water and grew food in their own backyard, and every community could look after each other. Especially in times of crises.

These days however, as we know, everything is completely centralised and we have forgotten what it was like to produce things on a local level. We have also been lulled into a false sense of security because everything we have ever needed is always just there when we want it. This has inevitably led to the development of an over consuming/throw away culture.

Before our over consuming/throw away culture came about, we were much more efficient in how we used things. Goods were made much more durable and lasted ages (such as toasters/kettles and other similar things), people mended and made their own clothes, put a fire and a second jumper on in winter instead of relying on central heating, and we were much more prudent in how we used things. For example, my mum after hearing about all the baby nappies selling out told me that I was raised on reusable/washable diapers that would last ages! And that instead of throw away baby wipes, she would again use reusable/washable cloths. So I gave her a big hug and thanks for cleaning my little bum in a sustainable way! ;P

For anyone who follows me on Instagram know that I post a ridiculous amounts of photos and videos of what has become one my biggest passions in the last 6 months (outside my obsession with tennis) – which is our family veggie patch. I post about it so regularly partly because I’m excited about it, but there’s also a strategy to it. I’m trying to remind people and plant into their subconscious to come back to nature. To start challenging themselves to think of ways to come back into a style of living that is actually in harmony with how nature works, unlike our current centralised systems which go completely against nature.

At the bottom of this article I will show you some photos of our garden!

My family has already seen massive benefit from our veggie patch. My personal food bill has lowered because of needing to buy less produce, and our health and energy have improved because of the incredibly vibrancy and nutrient density of eating food picked literally minutes before you eat it. Every now and then we also have a family dinner made from everything we have grown, and invite some friends over, and the joy and pleasure we get from this is incredible! I have also now made friends with a guy down the road who has a patch 10 times bigger than ours, who has offered so much support to us and loves giving his produce away. So when times of crises like right now hit, we don’t feel as afraid because we feel prepared and we know we have neighbours to look after us. This is what I hope that every community will work towards, and that my community will become even more unified. But I have been motivated to work hard on our patch – as well implementing other practical strategies – because I have known for a long time how fragile and unsustainable our currents systems actually are.

Now I know that not everyone has the space or ability to grow their own food, but we actually only need a very small space to be able to grow quite a bit of produce. Check out a movement called ‘Urban farming’, it is full of people giving incredible advice on how to grow loads of food in tiny spaces. Or there are my good friends at Life Cykel, who have created incredible products that allow people to grow loads of medicinal and edible mushrooms in their own kitchen. They are also constantly advancing the development of many sustainable things to come from mushrooms. Plastic made from mushrooms is one such example.

Things like this are POPPING UP EVERYWHERE! We just need to become aware of them and start supporting them. Or, one of the things I am most excited about are Earth ships, and my dream is to live in one of them one day. Earth ships are the most ingenious things I’ve ever seen and have already been tested and proven in a time of extreme crises. But as I said, all of these things are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s out there. People have been pushing this stuff for ages, we just need it to hit a tipping point of mass awareness, and hopefully this latest event will prove to be a catalyst for that. If it isn’t, then I see it becoming a catalyst for the sinister power grabs that I mentioned previously.

Community gardens are also now available whereby people can rent patches on other people’s land in order to grow their own food. This is actually exactly what we are aiming to turn our property in to. And besides, not everyone in every community has to grow their own food. Just the mindset of shopping and supporting local alone can help massively to decentralise our current systems.

We must take responsibly for this because multinational corporations, despite their clever marketing and slogans telling us they’re all “about supporting local”, care about one thing and one thing only – increasing their profits and expanding their control. And this is not meant to offend genuinely caring people who work for multinationals, I’m talking about those in dark suits at the very top of the pyramids.

But the power right now is in our hands. Both with our actions and with the choices we make with every dollar we spend, and my hope is that this latest crises will really help people realise this. Because the power won’t be in our hands forever. We are, in my opinion, at a fork in the road right now as a species, and it will be interesting to see what direction we go.