The Santa Cruz Diaries - Hopes and Dreams

Day 11:


Today was a good day. We went back to our farms and rated them on their "sustainability" based on a number of factors. The most interesting thing to me was that while all four farms differed a bit in some factors (biodiversity, input costs, etc) all ranked very high on personal satisfaction (nothing below an 8 of 10). 


While the net profits may not be a lot, everyone we talked to was very happy with their life. And who wouldn't be? One of the farmers lives in Santa Cruz farming half the year, and spends the winter surfing in Baja California. 

In one of our dinner conversations, someone was saying that they met someone who's goals were very simple: learn to surf, and learn Spanish. We all thought about it and thought how easy and happy life would be if you could simplify life like that. We talked about how unrealistic, and potentially unsatisfying it is to have your life goal be to change the world. Even narrowing that to changing the food system is pretty daunting. None of us are willing to give up on our dreams of changing the world, but oh how happy we would all be if we could learn to have simple goals in life: surf and speak Spanish. 

Fruit in Chadwick Gardens on campus.

Fog rolling in as we walk back to dinner.