tasting the future

i find myself part of some incredible work in the United Kingdom ~ an initiative called Tasting the Future is being called by some brave souls within the WWF-UK and is attracting all sorts of people to it. i say they are brave because in fact what they are calling in is a way of working on systemic and intractable issues that works with the real context in which humanity currently finds itself.  in human systems dynamics, this context is called "dynamical" ~ it is characterized by high levels of complexity, inter-connectivity, non-linearity, emergence.  this simply means that with the way things are working right now, we are on the edge of what we know and what we know how to do.  it means we need to brave enough to not-know, and yet to step in and say yes, i am here, join me.

Tasting the Future is less a "project" and more like a movement because it is about collectively finding a new way of living with the planet and with each other, through the portal of our food. currently, the UK alone consumes as if it had 3 planets to feed itself from.  factor in north america, europe, and the massive consumer cultures emerging in asia and it is almost too much to bear.  so we are asking, what would a food system actually look like if we produced and consumed in a way that sustained, rather than depleted, people and the planet?

the answer is actually that nobody knows what our new systems can and will look like because we are currently in a world in transition.  we have a sense of the new ways forward and we have a sense of the massiveness of our current systems' dysfunction.  our damage to the planet and to our humanity has lead to unprecedented depletion of both our biosphere and ethnosphere, while our economic and governance systems show signs of stress and distress, irrelevance, and an incapacity to respond to the real needs of this time.

there are various pathways forward. we can adapt to the current context as we imagine and innovate our way into completely new ways of being a human ecology on this planet.  we can consume better and create higher standards and regulations for our current industries.  we can consume differently by creating entirely industries, like electric cars and up-cycled product lines.  or we can consume less and in so doing, shift industries and behaviours radically: car-free cities and everything non-privatized open-source. this last way is a fundamental shift in our values, behaviours, artifacts, and assumptions about what ecology and economy and humanity are and can be...

what we are seeing in Tasting the Future is that these are happening all at once in the food sector.  there is already so much innovation happening in local and regional ways, in civil society and in the market, all around the UK.  they are, however, not connected, and they do not reach a critical mass of citizens.  so the invitation with Tasting the Future is to convene these projects and people, illuminate the work that is happening, connect them in meaningful ways and from this, scale up the work and begin to co-create the new together.  in other words, create an intentional learning ecology to support the catalysts, grow the impact, and together seed new innovations from what we learn collectively.  it is time to innovate and prototype, but the trick is to do it collectively, and learn with each step as we tread - or tumble - towards a fundamental change.

it is to begin to BE the new system that we want to cultivate more widely.

the edge in this work is around calling out a new culture, one that learns and grows together through actually being in profound relationship with each other and with the earth.  why is this edgy?  because the norm is to work with cause and effect and to see the system as outside of ourselves: to see problems and find solutions, to bring together experts or power brokers and get them to create strategies that will be implemented by us, or to create lists of recommendations that others should follow.  what we don't have as a sophisticated human capacity is to be learners together regardless of our status, to be the "us" that leads and the "them" that follows, learners who access a collective intelligence from the whole - from our diversity, differences and inter-connectivity, from what the Earth is asking of and teaching us, and from our wholeness as human beings, as opposed to from our "titles", positions, these fragmented aspects of our selves.

as margaret wheatley says, "whatever the problem, community is the answer" and "the leaders we need are already here."  those that are showing up are "paradigm pioneers" who hold a sense of purpose so strongly that others gather around, bring their beauty, and live their way courageously into the unknown, yet tangible, future.  we can already taste it...

eating Light

...it seems we've lost a sense of wonder in the food we eat.  we have forgotten that our food is actually Light manifest. in the interplay of sun, earth, and elements is a magical alchemy creating the plants that give their bodies to us so we can receive energy. we are what we eat.  Light. Energy. Life. it is pure potential - how do we process this Light?  how do we give back with the energy we receive?...

in the joy of hosting a conscious kitchen as part of the Axladitsa Immersion, we really played with the idea of eating Light.  

rather than thinking about "lite" diets or cutting down on foods, we invited in what it really means to eat Light.  we consume the nourishment that Light provides in every fruit and vegetable that we eat.  the vibration of Light is transformed into the uniqueness of carrot, a cabbage, thyme, aubergines...  Light becomes manifest through complex and incredible processes of photosynthesis and creates, well, our food.  


when we consume it, it becomes us....
so imagine with every bite, you are eating Light!

the first paragraph is a quote from an introduction i wrote for the "eating Light" section of ascent magazine's sustainability issue.   

eating Light profiles 3 young people who are bringing their light to their lives and work with community. you might want to check them out ~  gayla trail cultivates rich soil for plants and relationships as a pioneering urban gardener, and founder of you grow girl.    bryant terry is an eco-chef and author of Grub who feeds his african-american southern lineage through educating young people in healthy eating and preserving tradition. and jill boadway was the chef the radha yoga & eatery in vancouver's downtown eastside, and is the co-founder of the Conscious Table which shares a practice of conscious eating to cultivate gratitude and awareness. 

to read the entire intro and article which profiles these 3 inspirational people & their projects, click here.

the whole process of collectively imagining and then manifesting the sustainability issue of ascent magazine deeply influenced the way i think about sustainability as the union of our inner light and outer action.  when our editorial team first met to begin to think about the "core" of the issue, how we would approach sustainability in a way that was unique to ascent magazine and that offered a spiritual approach to this issue, we were inspired by the core teachings of swami radha, the founder of ascent, timeless books, and the yasodhara ashram.  in particular, the mantra,

"i am created by divine light, i am sustained by divine light, i am protected by divine light, i am surrounded by divine light, i am ever growing into divine light." 

to find out more about swami radha's work, her contribution to yoga in the west, and her teachings about Light (Light and Vibration and The Divine Light Invocation), visit the ashram's website at www.yasodhara.org.  

her own story is incredible and inspiring, radha, a diary of a woman's search.

jerusalem's first conscious kitchen

the invitation to create a conscious kitchen in jerusalem grew quite naturally from a new learning triad in which i find myself.   we are 3 women of 3 different generations who meet regularly to explore the complexity, paradoxes and possibilities of life. 

on the menu was first of all, a good deal of fresh produce from the Yehuda market, magically transformed into a delectable seasonal meal cooked with the characteristics of Spring.   Secondly, was a process of creating a conscious space in which to eat, share and open the space for new themes and insights to come forward and feed our learning cycle.

on the Food menu

cool cuke soup with spicy tomato chutney

fennel and orange salad with tangy dressing

fresh local veg stirfried with ginger, lemon zest & hijiki seaweed

spelt bread

stRAWberry cashew cream tarts (on pecan-date cookies)

lemon water with fresh mint

on the Who menu:

judy tal is a hungarian-born israeli, a mathematician by training who courageously stepped out of academia and into a new life of leading leaders in learning.  a real expert, she is creating mathematical models of complexity and self-organizing. a grandmother and second-generation holocaust survivor, she exudes strength and vulnerability. "it is a miracle that i am alive!" a true artist in the truth she speaks about life.  she is almost 60.

jill levenfeld is an LA-born israeli, a peace educator deeply committed to dialogue and co-existence with palestinian children and adults, religious, inter-faith, diverse communities. her full heart and soul are invested in a breath-taking depth of projects with palestinian friends and colleagues. contagious curiosity and boundless energy, jill is honest and generous beyond measure.  she is a proud mother of four children, two of whom are in the army. she is almost 50.

i am the almost-40-year-old.

the What menu:

Check-in 

to become present to each other, asking what is alive in our lives and hearts since the last time we met.

Framing in

 the spirit, intention and practices of the Conscious Kitchen. 

Preparation

in silence 

in the spirit of Radical Amazement a la Schumacher College kitchen which is a way of entering a relationship with the food that is offering itself

(a term coined by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)

Cooking

the spirit of the season ~ quick cooking, seasonal, local bright foods arranged in bouquets, 

cooling foods

Blessings 

from each of us, in our own way

on the food, and those who grew it, prepared it, 

the land it came from and the miracle of its existence in the first place

Eating with gusto, appreciation and chewing!

Clean-up

the How menu:

 this includes bringing awareness to the cooking & preparation, nutritional content, beauty and aesthetics, rhythms of the seasons, relationships with the food's producers, the vibrations and energetics in our food, our waste to the magic of silence and conversation, sharing our cultures and rituals of blessing and thanks...

Open space 

for a rich conversation on complexity, self-organizing and the body, 
if it is written in the body's dna code to self-organize towards purpose (a bone cell becomes a bone), then do human systems self-organize towards purpose ~ and what is the difference between purpose and self-interest?

fennel and orange salad, cook cuke soup with spicy tomato chutney, 
fresh veg stir-fry with ginger and hijiki