Over the years, when confronting disease and/or pest problems on the farm, I have a favorite, iconic question which I pose, to myself (and anyone who’ll listen) … “Are you smarter than a flea beetle? Are you craftier than a cucumber wilt?” These are honest questions. And sometimes, it turns out, we actually are!
Truth is, there are frequently simple, cheap, and “natural” interventions that can alter the trajectory of a blight or pest just by shifting one variable, like the planting date, the moisture level, or the soil pH. Ironically, some of the most effective solutions to our gnarliest growing problems are actually uncannily simple, like “sheet mulch,” “soil conservation,” “nutrient recycling,” and “gleaning.” Turns out, such permacultural remedies are often hiding out in plain view, if we can just see and harness their simple brilliance.
In the early ‘90s I was hired with a legion of community health educators in response to the exploding HIV epidemic. Although my background was in teaching and counseling, not public health, I was a practiced speaker and not shy talking about sex from a public health perspective. It seemed the perfect job, barnstorming the tri-county area with a basket of fun teaching tools and props. We were on a noble mission to share lifesaving information with young and old….
At the outset, I was stunned to learn that HIV transmission could be readily prevented with pennies worth of protection and a basic knowledge about contagion and risk behaviors. In my bright-eyed naivete, I thought, “This will be easy.” All we needed to do was to spread the facts and resources to the people … and the epidemic will soon be over! I lectured in health classes, shelters, group homes, teacher trainings, community events, and the like, sharing an unapologetic, HIV prevention message. But over the next several years, notwithstanding all our good efforts, the rates of transmission and sickness continued to rise!
Over time, it became obvious to us that our pre-eminent enemy was not lack of knowledge, or access to protection, but rather various other factors baked into our culture and consciousness. The profound effects of addiction, relationship abuse, sexism, depression and low self esteem, for example, could not be underestimated in their impact on HIV risk behavior. The influence of peer pressure, stigma, homophobia, and indeed, racism also had to be acknowledged.
How indeed could we convince folks to stay healthy, if they have little to live for? It became clear that we’d also have to dig into the thornier problems of hopelessness, of poverty, as well as the uniquely modern sicknesses of the heart and soul.
Today we’re dealing with another deadly virus, this one readily transmissible through air. Add a delayed incubation schedule and a majority of asymptomatic transmissions, and voila, we’ve got ourselves a perfect storm of terrible!
And there’s one uniquely terrible influence that must be called out regarding this current pandemic, that is the shameless “politicization of risk behavior,” specifically the manufactured doubt, confusion and stigma around facial masks. This reckless and misguided failure to respect medical science, twisting universal mask wearing into a perceived “threat to liberty” has set our nation’s mortal struggle with this virus on its head.
As COVID churns through the population, it is we the people who must redeem this scary moment, with facts, with medical resources, with resolve, and with compassion for all of us. Because we’re all collectively implicated, we have no choice but to join forces and overcome this pandemic, together.
I recall an older guy, “Joe,” who I met at one of my HIV prevention workshops in 1997. Joe had for decades been an angry, judgmental homophobe, blaming liberals, drug users and gays for the epidemic … until he learned that his beloved friend and neighbor, Fred, dying of AIDS, was indeed gay. The cognitive dissonance of that revelation scrambled his entire world view and, through his dying friend, he transformed into a strong advocate for tolerance, healing and compassion.
America may or may not be the “greatest nation on Earth,” however Covid doesn’t care. Instead it has subjected us to a brutal lesson on the cost of putting party over nation, nation over species, and economics over human lives. Will we remain a cautionary tale on the viral effects of selfishness? This crisis is a critical litmus test of our hallowed commitments to one another.
The question remains: Are we smarter than a virus?
Surviving this mess and thriving again will be a difficult but essential blessing, but let’s not ignore the simple, “garden variety” remedies available to us before the cavalry arrives.
Danny Botkin farms and teaches in Gill.