Christopher Carter - Diassociation from Ecology

Nowadays we are so disassociated from Ecology it's hard to even know what's natural anymore. The other day I took a walk out on the Noland Trail and it was really refreshing to see what I'm missing with having to constantly go to school and work indoors. It's easy to see how park rangers and people who have professions that keep them outside all the time have a greater appreciation for nature; it's their life. For many of us, we don't even like to go outside; it's a nuisance.

I don't really know what it is in particular that disassociates us from nature. Maybe we don't care enough? Maybe technology and other means have made it so we don't "need" the outside anymore? Either way, there has to be someone out there that likes "dealing" with the outside enough to farm, and produce our food that we take for granted at the supermarket. Maybe people would appreciate food more if we all have to grow it ourselves; and we didn't have as many choices to eat. If it wasn't for all of the grants and money given to farmers over the years in America, we would be in some serious trouble as far as the availability of domestic food goes. It's mind blowing to think that nowadays no one actually wants to get out there and get their hands dirty to get food into the hands of people. In fact, I would do it if asked, or if it was needed, but we really don't hear too much about America "needing" farms. People just kind of "do it." Of course now we get a lot of our food from imports, but we also export a whole lot that never sees domestic supermarket shelves. We export millions of dollars worth of food goods constantly and on top of that, we need food for ourselves. The whole food economy is mind-blowing when you think about it.