Those of you who check my posts often have probably read between the lines my usual complains about the lack of sustainable education in my country. So you can imagine my surprise when I heard earlier about a high school event dedicated to organic food.

One of the Romanian cities, Ramnicu Valcea hosted for 2 days a culinary exhibition strictly related to organic products that have been prepared without any synthetic food aid. Although organised by a highschool, the event was also definitory for adults because the organic products brought by kids (jams, fruits and vegetables, jars of traditional home made foods) must have reminded adults about their youth, when their grandparents always had some goodie stash waiting for them every season.

I might be one representative of the last lucky generation whose grandma is still doing this and I still don't entirely understand how people go buy mushrooms from the supermarket at the beginning of the autumn, when they could go pick them directly from the forest. Same goes for berries. Same for pickles. (I know pickles don't grow on all roads, but their ingredients do happen to be available in all gardens)

Don't get me wrong, I buy mushrooms from the supermarket, too. But I do it during spring or summer when they're out of season & my personal stash at my grandma's has also been finished for some time. I do the same with vegetables. Although no longer living close to my grandma, I go to the local market & buy fresh vegs from local people who earn a living from selling their home cultivated potatoes, cabbages, carrots, green onions and so on. Most of them don't own large lands. As for technology, it's either beyond their use or understanding. They are people living in the villages near the city and can't imagine growing vegetables or meat (chicken, a couple of pigs, a couple of cows) otherwise than with their own bare hands.

Getting back to organic food, I basically choose the supermarket only when I have no other way. But one person doesn't make a country. It's easier, it's more comfortable (sometimes even cheaper) to eat from the supermarket and most of us have been doing it for years. Is it tastier? Is it healthier? Not for me. But I'm aware it may be for others.

So I couldn't be more happy when I read about these kids and their organic event. Sure, it was a small contribution to a community that has different priorities. Sure, it only meant something important for the highschool kids & maybe for their families. But they made their point and gave me hope that green & organic are not just some cool, trendy words that will lose meaning and fade away in a couple of years.

This country still has a chance. Whoever has ears, hears it, whoever has eyes, sees it. It's in the young generation and its name is sustainability.