Member Musings

For many years, I have been concerned about glyphosate use on our farms, roads, playgrounds and parks to kill weeds as it is carcinogenic and has been also proven toxic to our beloved pollinators. I often felt powerless to do much about the widespread use of a known toxin and felt discouraged seeing it for sale in such large quantities when walking into Home Depot. I was also very disturbed to learn that even our local wildflower preserve uses RoundUp weedkillers to kill the roots of invasive species...and they are supposed to be naturalists who care about the environment!  I felt disgusted and a bit depressed when I also learned recently that our local parks and schools all use it, so I jumped at the chance to do something when my dear friend and acupuncturist, Mary Parr, invited me to be a part of a proactive new local group she calls "Coalition for the Land".

After seeing the film "Into the Weeds" at an event sponsored by this coalition, I felt sad and powerless at first and then angry and discouraged that we humans are poisoning ourselves and our fellow living beings on this planet with proven carcinogens and allowing corporations to get away with not even paying those who rightfully sue them who get cancer from their products! I cried while watching the film as the man with cancer whom the film is about seemed to be slowly and painfully dying before our eyes and although he won the lawsuit again Monsanto, they are lowering the payout amount each time they appeal it and he may never see any of that money in the end. I  reallyhated feeling so powerless & wanted to move up the scale of emotions beyond anger and reconnect with my heart so I began doing some heart-coherent breathing techniques to inch my way closer to the frequency where creative solutions are apparent.

After the film, I spoke with an environmentalist who had worked for the last 40 years on glyphosate abatement and a representative from the NorthEast Organic Farming Association of NJ (NOAFNJ) who both informed me that we could break down glyphosate already in our soils using probiotics, especially the ones that are in sauerkraut juice. I felt so empowered to be able to DO something proactive and not just feel powerless and hopeless.  I also learned that the most effective non-toxic weed killers use a more concentrated form of acetic acid than the white vinegars we use for food products and I went and bought some 45% white vinegar online to mix with dish soap and epsom salts to spray on my own patio and share with my neighbors.

The Coalition for the Land is starting by working with getting local park services to switch from using RoundUp /glyphosate to using an acetic acid product that is non-toxic made by  Contact Organics  Our next action step is to see how the land steward Mike Long and his team from Mercer County Parks plan to use their tests of Contact Organics . All of us are also encouraged to begin reaching out to nature conservancies and see if they are interested in learning more about Contact Organics as a viable alternative to Round-Up.

I am so grateful to be able to "Zoom Out" and look at the bigger picture of what we can do incrementally on the local level to switch to weed-killers that are honoring of the birds, bees, humans and Mother Earth while also using natural ways to clean our soils and be able to grow organic foods in our own back yards. I hope to share these ideas with my own newly forming Community Assembly of Lawrence and to others at our summer FreedomFest gathering on the 4th of July.  Feeling empowered so rocks that one just has to share it and pay it forward!

 Please reach out directly to Mary Parr at Sourland Wellness  (609)793-9981 to find out how you can help, to volunteer to make calls in your area,  or to apply what we have learned in your local area and Community Assembly.