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This Ste. Genevieve Farm Operates On a Higher Level of Consciousness
• by Pat Eby
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Here’s something St. Louis-area cooks can count on this winter: fresh, homegrown, certified organic vegetables delivered weekly from the Maharishi World Peace Vedic Organic Farm in Ste. Genevieve, Mo.
With over 100,000 square feet of greenhouse space, MWPV Organics has plenty of living quarters for the vegetables that marketing manager Gary Greenfield said he expects to bring to market, among them: cauliflower, broccoli, beets, Swiss chard, turnips, butternut squash, tomatoes, carrots, green and red leaf lettuce. These vegetables are free of pesticides and herbicides and grown with no synthetic fertilizers or genetically modified materials. But what makes the farm unique is the commitment of the people who work there to conscious living, to creating harmony in their little acreage of the world.
“I guess a good analogy would be if you walk into a restaurant, and back in the kitchen the chef is throwing things and arguing with people – as opposed to a chef who is calm, working in harmony with people. Which chef would you want to cook your dinner? It’s like that with the plants in the greenhouses. It’s a deeper recognition of the principles operating, a consciousness,” said Greenfield.
Vedic methods include playing music for the plants. Greenfield said, “Specific vibrations can evoke different responses in plants. The songs, called Gandharva, or the music of nature, were cognized by ancient seers, the rishis – enlivening the laws of nature specific to the time of day.” It’s not a far-fetched idea. During the American houseplant explosion of the 1970s, playing music for plants was commonplace. Gardeners routinely talk to plants, too. The commitment to conscious observations and harmony continues each day at the farm. “Things can change in just one day when you farm organically,” said Greenfield. “We’ve got to be right there if a wilt or a virus comes into the greenhouse. Every day we observe and react to the plants.”
Because not all the employees are part of the Maharishi movement, farm manager Ed Villmer said, some workers operate with different instructions when they’re in the greenhouses. One overriding rule, however, is that everyone is to have a positive mindset and “solve [their] problems before they work with the plants.”
Everything grown at the farm meets the standards for the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic certification and adheres to Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture principles as well. “Veda means pure knowledge,” said Greenfield. “Finding the fullest potential of a seed – blurring the line between the person and the plants, realizing the intelligence of the systems involved – what we do is nurture harmony. We honor the interdependent nature of our world,” Greenfield said.
The result of all this consciousness seems to be vegetables exceptional in taste, nutrition and in what Greenfield calls vitality. Conscious St. Louis consumers and foodies can sign up for the Community Supported Agriculture subscription service. Every Saturday 10 to 12 pounds of Vedic organic vegetables are delivered to St. Louis. Customers pick up the vegetables at a designated site. The selection varies depending on what vegetables are at maturity in the
greenhouses in winter months and in the open fields during the growing season. While the subscription periods are 13 weeks, customers can sign up anytime and costs are prorated. Subscription plans have some flexibility, too, to accommodate those month-long vacations and such. The farm also has a custom-order department separate from subscriptions. Customers can pick and choose from available vegetables and order specific quantities. Those interested in either service can call the number below or contact the farm by sending a fax to 573.756.1462 or an e-mail to VedicOrganicSales@earthlink.net.
Why buy organic, locally grown produce? Aside from the obvious benefits of not ingesting toxins, the vegetables are picked at the peak of ripeness and delivered to customers within two days. “Take eating a tomato from California. It’s picked green as a Granny Smith apple. It’s a totally different food – different taste, nutrition and vitality,” Greenfield said. There’s world economics and environmental stewardship to consider, too. Conventional agriculture relies on petroleum in production and shipping. Although pesticides and herbicides make for picture-perfect vegetables, they can be hard on the farmers and the land. High-yield agriculture does feed a burgeoning world population, but Greenfield and other proponents of organic farming believe it is wasteful, inefficient and tied to dependence on petroleum products.
Greenfield finds openings in the everyday business of living to stay in the conversation with people, to educate in simple ways. “There’s a lot of different doors of opportunity,” he said. “I was waiting for my tires to be changed, talking to this guy in his 70s. He said, ‘People probably don’t realize all the health problems that come from chemicals.’ And there we were – in the conversation.”
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