Healthy Food: An Elementary Girl’s Dream
I can remember flying into Houston, my hometown, nine years ago.
I had just learned about the chemically-intensive operating system that had been put in place on our food supply by chemical companies now genetically engineering seeds. I remember looking out the window of the airplane and wondering how in the world to get the message out. Wondering if it was crazy to try, knowing that I had to.
Back then, in 2006, the work was so daunting, few were talking about it and people looked at you like you had three heads when you said “GMO”, but it couldn’t be unlearned. It was something that I couldn’t not do, so I kept going.
Last week, I received this note from a high school friend with a mom going through cancer treatment. When I hear from childhood friends from Houston, it means more than they could ever imagine. Her daughter was asked to draw and write about her dreams in school.
“Going through my daughter’s weekly folder of work from her school. Out of the blue, I see this and think of you… She said the project was supposed to only be about dreams and not about food. She just thought it was the best dream that she could think of….I think so, too.”
The John Lennon song, Imagine, has been sort of a theme song through this. I’ve sung it to the kids at bedtime, over the phone when I travel. It’s such a tribute to seeing beyond the mess that we are in right now to the solutions that we can create together. And when a friend unexpectedly sent me a T-shirt with the words, “You may say I’m a dreamer…..I’m not the only one,” my heart was flooded, because we are not. There are so many incredible people working on this issue, so many with enormous hearts and enormous talent, so many that I am so grateful for every day.
And as companies like Kroger, HEB, White Wave, Whole Foods, Costco, Chipotle and others offer more and more healthy food, this little girl’s dream has a very strong chance of coming true.
It’s up to us.
