Barbara H. Peterson
One of the most intimate things you can do with your body is eat, and most of us do it several times a day. So, why do we think that we can shove just about anything made by anyone out of who knows what down our gullets and not expect to get back exactly what we put in?
We might not have much in the way of material possessions, but here at Farm Wars, we love our critters. We care for them, feed them, trim their tootsies, scritch them when they want, give them shelter, and keep them safe. They, in turn, provide us with eggs, milk, transportation, and affection. This is in stark contrast to today’s hustle and bustle lifestyle that leaves no room for anything but fast food and fast heartburn, not to mention the various ailments plaguing our “microwave” culture of “gotta have it now or never.”
It’s time to take a good, hard look at just what is important and what is not. Too much time is spent valuing the things that have no value, and discarding the things that do because we simply do not recognize their worth. We are blind to the consequences of our actions, running with tunnel vision to the next stop on a train leading to complete enslavement.
I want to control my own food choices, not have some mega-corporation with profit as its foremost concern, and genocide as an acceptable outcome feeding me and my family. I want to know what my animals have been fed. I want to be able to recognize what is real and good and what is artificial.
I don’t care what it says on the package, if it was processed for long-term storage and long distance transportation so that it still looks and tastes like food for months or even years, with ingredients intended to artificially enhance flavors that no longer exist in their natural form because real food simply does not last that long, just how much nutrition is it providing? Wonder why companies put added vitamins and minerals in their products? Because the naturally occurring ones simply are not there anymore.
All creatures on this earth were placed here with a purpose, and certain ones can live and work with us if we just take the time to listen, learn, and develop relationships with them. I have said for quite some time now, that a goat will keep you alive.
This is real food storage. Sure, a pantry stocked with processed food will help you get through hard times in the beginning, but what happens when your pantry runs dry? What happens when you can’t get to town? What happens when the store shelves are empty? What happens when you can’t get that box of cereal, or carton of milk, or flat of eggs? Between goat’s milk, a garden, geese and chickens, we can survive, and be healthier for it.
It’s time for a revolution of the personal kind. There is nothing more effective than changing one’s own life by rejecting the artificial and digging in to create a real, honest, down to earth, “local living” lifestyle. It’s time to put love back on the dinner plate. Will it happen all at once? No. Will you start to see changes in your health and attitude just by changing a few things? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes, and double yes.
©2013 Barbara H. Peterson
Tags: Activism, Barbara H. Peterson, economy, Family Farming, Farm Wars, farmwars, food localization, local communites, Survival
In Russia nobody eats processed foods. Many though have started eating that fast food that has come into the country and people are starting to stink and get fat. You stink when you eat junk. You smell good when you get good food.
When I go to the states I can’t eat that processed stuff. I can’t eat your eggs or meat. It has to much bad stuff. So I have to buy organic. I eat fresh eggs. The difference is amazing you should try farm raised and then the store. In the store you can tell it is a lot harder the fresher eggs are more watery. Chickens raised on the farm are a lot heavier and the meat has a lot better taste. You would surely know the difference if you were to ever eat farm raised animals that eat grass and corn. Here they graze on grass like they should.
dear want to be chicken farmer. Go look up “chicken tractor dot com ” Chickens need food like grain and kitchen scraps, water, hay to lay eggs in and a confinement to keep them safe and dry that they will use as a coop. They are easier than dog or cats to keep and who wants a pet you can’t eat anyway ?
@ Valerie Ozsu
This is exactly what we are seeing all over the world. Laws to stop people digging up dirt on their own property. Through corporatization and centralization they are removing the means of production again and again. One day it will be all food. They will have a food scare like food poisoning and then you won’t be able to grow your own basil plants. This is mad legalist fascism.
And those poor council members think they are helping.
Thank you Barb for this very touching piece and a reminder to us all to slow down and rethink our purpose and the purpose everything has on this earth. Gratitude, servitude and being stewards of our communities and to ourselves sometimes often gets forgotten. If we knew more about the life that sustains ours I wonder if that would give a new perspective and appreciation of what goes in our mouths. Something very spiritual about it. Just yesterday, I asked a client who raises chickens and is also a bee keeper to offer a class so that she could share her knowledge with me and other interested clients. I have often wanted to raise chickens but don’t know much about it and what a great way to learn.
Vacaville, CA is trying to pass an ordinance that no one can have chickens (or any farm animal) on less than an acre. We all need to call the city office and complain about this and prevent it from passing. If there are any other readers from the Vacaville area want to protect our right to have chickens then you better get active!
I love my critters too. It is so wonderful to take good care of the chickens who provide me with eggs, fertilizer, and entertainment.
There is nothing more fun than a family growing food together and canning food and doing things together like hunting and fishing. Boating and hiking is very important. The cities have ruined our children.
So many people think they got to eat something different every day of the month. The cowboys would eat beef jerky for three months. If you eat different stuff everyday and make it very tasty you are inclined to over eat. This is what happens at a buffet. They got us fat and in cities with pollution and junk food and full of asthma
Big industry has used the media perfectly to convince the people that the agrarian way if life if flawed and unsustainable. They have done this to secure absolute control over the means of production. In this case, it is food production.
But they have done this in many areas. Maternity, education, law, clothing…they started by criminalizing hemp in favor of petroleum. Humans need to take back their liberty over skills and take the power away from the evil that tell us they are of any use.
keep it up Barb!