The Curse of Prince Charles

The royal engagement between British Prince William and Kate Middleton coincided with a much quieter event – the American premier of the new documentary "Harmony" on sustanable land use made by the father of the betrothed, Prince Charles. 

For those who did not know, the Prince of Wales is a long-time promoter of organic agriculture and a hands-on grower of clean produce. In the early 90s his devotion to the cause was considered eccentric by most of the public and only added to his notorious unpopularity.

I often wondered how much of this sentiment was fed by the fact that he never was a Hollywood handsome. And though his contribution to charitable work was no less meaningful than that of his wife, compared with her exuberant charm he always looked dull and his accomplishments – unimportant.

The new documentary had been preceded by an interview given to American journalist who asked various questions in a demonstratively respectable and sympathetic manner.

Prince looked surprisingly good comparing with routinely ugly pictures of him we have seen over the last decades. He had a wrinkled but content face of a man who spent a lot of time outdoors and did not care much about aging. He also looked like one who finally found some peace in his life.

In the beginning of the interview he was pretty reserved, aparently being  used to be bullied and misconstrued. But as conversation evolved Charles became more comfortable, open and, I guess, more himself.

Watching him talk I’ve been thinking that maybe the time has come and his role in the eco-movement will be finally acknowledged. In fact, he recognized the problem when most of us did not even believe in pesticides.

The main idea of the film was that exploitation of the earth should be sustainable in order to keep both humanity and earth healthy.

This simple thought somehow struck me. Not that I had any doubts that conventional produce was plain poisonous. I am also aware of destruction that chemical fertilizers do to farming land.

However, I never really combined these notions together.

It was the unmistakable moment of truth, when many seemingly separated issues came together as elements of one puzzle:

Of course, this is all connected – with our cars, computers and governments we are the part of the same eco-system, just as grass, worms, bears and bees. Whatever is wrong with the eco-system impacts us – we develop allergies, cancers, our kids become less smart. Whatever is wrong with us – impacts the eco-system, because we intrude on so many levels.

In the urban neighbourhood where I grew up there was a family with farming roots. They tried to cut out a spot of land in our communal backyard and grow some vegetables. In a miniature garden our neighbours used compost and crop rotation, because they knew how to do these things, and besides, this was the most economical way (chemicals at that time were expensive!)  

The agricultural industry had discarded this old-fashioned wisdom encouraged by the fellow industrialists – those who produce fertilizers, genetically modified grains and such. They seduced farmers by whispering how smart and superior they would be with all the advantages of the modern science. And economically effective.

Reciprocating cycle was substituted by linear approach of taking much, deceiving the earth with nutritional hoax, and then forcing it to give more…  

And this approach was declared more sophisticated. 

For me the most striking evidence in the movie came from a simple guy – the Louisianan farmer who told the story of how he became an organic grower.

He said that he was like everybody else, using more and more chemicals every year. Occasionally, he was  upset by the next recall of the stuff he used due to revealed links to cancer.

Then he realized that poisoning the earth was not even cheap. The margins between his investments and gains were dropping permanently to the point where it made no economical sense anymore...

Some people say that we have to clean our act, or we will be killed by Global Warming. Frankly, I do not believe much in this theory, because I am old enough to remember an opposite fad – the Global Winter.

Do I really need to think globally to make right consumer choices? Or maybe, just the sense of self-preservation and care for those I love are enough?

And maybe, if I make the right choices,  industries will pick up the trend - out of simple greed, as they are supposed to?  

The next day I browsed the Internet and checked TV news to find some reaction to the movie.

I found none.

Apparently, no one besides me was interested in Charles’s views on sustainability that he relentlessly promoted for 30 years.

The only thing I heard was that his vague and reluctant mentioning of Camilla  as a possible queen in the preceding interview outraged the entire Great Britain: 

 “Because many blame her in her husband’s tragic divorce she can not be queen, but only a princess consort!” – was the verdict. 

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Frankly, here I planned to finish this post, but then they were attacked in the car and the title which I thought was kind-of smart, does not even seem funny anymore.