Don Mulford
Technology
We all admit it’s very true that man has made mistakes,
But surely all the good he’s done, successes that he makes,
Offset the failed experiments, the efforts gone awry,
For no success will ever come without the will to try!
In all the years Improvement is the scientist’s endeavor!
When should we stop? the critics ask. The answer, friends, is Never!
For if we stop, no longer strive each day to reach success
We won’t improve or stay the same, we’ll simply retrogress!
Consider first the hospitals, and medical advances!
I wonder if we’d live as long and take as many chances
If we weren’t sure our doctors had the tools to make the cure,
But we don’t ask whence came the tools, of that you can be sure!
Research in medicine does a lot to keep us fit and well,
For I’ve experienced heart attack and I’m alive to tell,
But if I’d followed remedies as naturopaths have said,
I wouldn’t be here writing verse. In truth, I would be dead!
I often wonder what the health food dealers really mean
When they say Eat Organic Foods! - no difference can be seen!
I wouldn’t want to eat a really inorganic diet;
For I’m sure it would be gritty and I wouldn’t want to try it!
A starving man who’s given food when he’s demoralized
Will never ask you how it’s grown, or if it’s fertilized.
He’ll gladly take what you can give and so avoid starvation,
For any type of food he gets can lead to his salvation!
We must respect the farmers, for the crops they strive to raise!
The plants need phosphates, nitrogen and sunny summer days;
No matter how we feed our crops - and feed our crops we must,
They’ll always be Organic, and in nature we must trust!
All growing plants need nitrogen, they all must have their share!
No matter what the critics say, we get it from the air!
Now surely this is natural, and so are coal and oil,
For all those useful minerals result from nature’s toil.
So many of our chemicals have been derived from coal,
And coal and oil and natural gas have all the self same role.
They still supply the carbon and the hydrogen we need
If we’re to make the fertilizer, growing crops to feed!
The hydrocarbons which we use once proudly stood as trees,
And now they are our legacy, to do with as we please!
To say they are unnatural is spurning natures plan,
For nature spent a million years, preparing it for man!
Now vegetables that we buy are fertilized by bees,
And fruit that’s in the supermarkets still must grow on trees,
But now we spray our crops and so eliminate the pest
So when we buy our produce we get nothing but the best.
This gives an opportunity for those who think they know
To tell us of the dangers in the way we make things grow.
It really makes me chuckle when the health food people scoff.
Don’t they know a little water will wash all the toxins off?
And as for prices in the stores, it’s true that costs are rising,
But when it says Organic on the label it’s surprising!
It’s supposed to be much better for us but it’s always dearer
And we’d never grow enough that way, to farmers nothing’s clearer!
Though some would send us messages of perils close at hand,
We’ll never realize their truths if we don’t understand!
The words are so important but the meaning must be clear,
So the blindest ones can see it and the deafest ones can hear!
My last remarks before I close and set aside my pen!
I’ve lived a happy, fruitful life, my own three-score and ten,
And hopefully I’ve long to live, more fruits of life to taste.
My motto will be Savor Life! Let nothing go to waste!