Another reason to keep or start a garden:

by Thomas Moore

Today I committed a revolutionary act. It had nothing to do with firearms or marksmanship training. I didn’t organize a protest march or join the Underground. In fact, it had nothing to do with politics, except in the broadest possible sense. But it was revolutionary nonetheless. Today I finished spring planting.

How can such a benign activity be revolutionary, you may ask. In a sane and normal world it wouldn’t be. People have grown their own food from the beginning of the world. Agriculture has always been the foundation of civilization and the farmer a benefactor of mankind. But today we don’t live in a sane and normal world. The criminal Regime we live under is not content just to rob us of our liberty, our property, our dignity and humanity. It also seeks to control us by controlling the food supply. It seeks to strip us of food self-sufficiency and make us dependent, first on the central state, through food stamps, for example; and second, on the state’s real masters, the giant agri-businesses who determine Federal food policy. I call this process food fascism.

No doubt the word fascism has been abused, like racist, sexist, and anti-Semite. We Southerners in particular are familiar with the elites’ use of these epithets to demonize us. But “fascism” is not mere name-calling. I’m using its precise and original meaning, and on good authority – Benito Mussolini, the founder of Italian fascism himself. He said, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.”

However, there’s a significant difference between the 1930s and today, and the difference is the key to understanding the politics of the modern American Empire, especially food politics. Under Hitler and Mussolini, the corporations did the government’s bidding, but in today’s America, government does the corporations’ bidding. Big multinationals, in this case Monsanto, ConAgra, Cargill, and ADM, buy political influence through their lobbyists who “bundle” huge campaign contributions. They contribute heavily to think tanks and universities that influence policymaking. Their staff scientists and lawyers circulate between corporations and key jobs in regulatory agencies. Is it any wonder the kept whores of government make laws and regulations that benefit “industrialised agriculture” instead of you and me?

Michael Pollan, well-known food author and expert (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) points out that under the guise of promoting nutrition and health, "…the US Congress is hell bent on introducing laws with global reach that would destroy the very basis of people's food security and food sovereignty." One example much in the news lately is HR 875, the so-called Food Safety and Modernization Act of 2009. If enacted, "…it would effectively hand over control of America's food supply to such a nefarious giant as Monsanto and its lesser counterparts such as Tyson and Cargill," according to Natural News. When the Feds stick it to us, it’s always in the name of safety or security. Then there’s HR 759, the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act. It could cripple small farmers by imposing recordkeeping requirements that currently apply to food processors, and also by requiring all farms to become certified in “best agricultural practices.” These practices, ostensibly aimed at controlling microbial contamination, would place a disproportionate burden on small family farms in the name of regulating the large factory farms where most food-safety problems originate. HR 814 and SR 425 are supposed to prevent the e. coli bacteria in spinach, meat from “downer” (diseased) cattle in school lunches, feathers in chicken patties, and other food disasters we’ve seen all too much of lately, but almost all of them originate on large factory farms and CAFOs, Confined Animal Feeding Operations, the horrors of which are too sickening to enumerate. Extending onerous regulations to small farms that typically are free of these problems will further undermine the smallholder and family farmer in favor of corporate agriculture and doubtless give us more toxin-laden and nutritionless food. "What people don't realize is that if any of these bills pass, we lose. All we will have left is industrial food," says Deborah Stockton, executive director of the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.

What people also don’t realize is that the big business-government marriage means the corporations now have at their disposal government force. Big Agra enriches itself at our expense; and if we refuse to bend the knee to their worse-than-useless regulations, then they get government to sic the SWAT teams on us. This is modern American fascism, and it rules over the whole economy, not just agriculture and food production. Fusing big government, big money, and big corporations creates an unlimited and unaccountable center of power. It is the program of both major parties, of Congress, and all the major Presidential candidates. Traditional politics can’t fix the problem; in fact, only feeds it.

I believe the eventual goal is the criminalization of independent farming and food self-sufficiency, including prison terms, fines, and property confiscation for farmers who refuse to hoe the row laid out for them by the food fascists. Does this seem like an exaggeration? Keep in mind that Federal power always expands beyond the plain language and original intent of any legislation. Remember the RICO statute, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act of 1970? It was supposed to be aimed only at Mafioso bosses and organized crime. Now it’s almost never invoked against the Mafia but is used to prosecute individuals, businesses, Right-to-Lifers, and political protest groups – in short, almost anybody in almost any context. s, and terrorist organizations. In short, a Agriculture ranked high among the vital issues considered by the First Southern National Congress in December 2008. We passed a Remonstrance and Petition for Redress of Grievances noting, among other things, “Since the Great Depression, Federal law and policy have waged war against Southern agriculture, devastating Southern farmlands and impoverishing and dispossessing farm families. Regions once famous for their fruitfulness now lie depopulated and fallow. Instead of making it possible for farmers to remain productive on their own acres, Government policy encourages corporations to gobble up small farms, leaving their owners landless strangers on the land their fathers tamed.” See the full Remonstrance We petitioned the government to end the policies that undermine independent Southern farmers and impose destructive regulations and unsafe food upon us. But don’t hold your breath or delay your supper waiting for the Feds to reply. You’ll surely go hungry.

The inescapable reality of the human condition is that we have to eat. Moreover, if we want to remain healthy, we have to eat clean, safe, wholesome, and nutritious food, but you aren’t going to get this kind of nourishment from the food fascists. Perhaps in the future, perhaps in a national crisis, if you don’t comply with the government’s dictates, you might not get any food at all. History is replete with examples of dictatorships using food as a weapon, usually against their own people. Henry Kissinger, arch-criminal and myrmidon of the New World Order said it: “Control the oil and you control the nations. Control the food and you control the people.”

More than any other issue – more than guns, more than the mass robbery of bailouts and trillions for Wall Street, more than sound money versus fiat money -- food fascism versus food freedom illustrates the control agenda and the true depths of evil of the Regime. For this reason, any progress you can make toward food self-sufficiency, toward raising your own nutritious, wholesome, and inexpensive food (and almost anyone can), is not only “revolutionary” in the broader sense of the word, it’s also the best way to protect yourself amid the turmoil that is breaking over our heads.

One final, personal word: This account is not just an abstract argument flowing from a sentimental tie to our Southern agrarian past. I practice what I preach. Eventually, or perhaps sooner than the word implies, I aim to live off what I can raise, supplemented by what I can shoot in the hills and catch in the creek. In so doing, I’ve found another kind of nourishment deeper than sustenance for the body, something we Southerners once understood better than most Americans – the nourishment of the soul.

I’m recovering something precious that was lost, knowing my labours are connected to the most basic and legitimate of human needs. To see the dark green tops of my potato vines first poke their heads up from their hills and see the first corn shoots appear boldly is to know peace and contentment instead of the frantic scurrying about overlaid with anxiety that is the substance of modern urban life. Raising your own food inoculates you from the confusion, rootlessness, and alienation so rampant in today’s world. It spares you from the infantilism, the narcissism, and the eternal obsession with things, mostly trivial and useless things, that ultimately spell death to the soul. You experience the miraculous almost daily, and thus come to know the Great Planter Himself more intimately. In this way too, it is a revolutionary act.

Fresh Meat from the Garden?

It seems the little forest animals of rabbits and squirrels are getting increasingly brave about coming right into the yard. They used to stay a respectable distance until they realized we were not interested in eating them. After a number of munches in the vegetable garden, I knew we would eventually be having new items on the food menu. Yesterday was Peter cottontails last day in my garden. A quick clean kill with a 22lr put 1 pound 11 ounces of nice meat in the frig.
Anyone got a good rabbit recipe they want to share?

New Babies! 30 plus guineas!

Here are a few pics of our new farm additons. These baby guineas are from two Moms who hatched their brood within a day of each other. We have one more Mom sitting on a nest...at least that we know of. That is the challenge with guinea Moms in spring. You never really know where they are and often they get eaten by predators while faithfully sitting on the nest. Our guineas are great moms while on the nest, but then when the young ones hatch, they better be able to keep up with Mom, because they hardly slow down at all. Very few make it to adult hood. That's why if we can find the nest, we steal the eggs, put them in the incubator, and then sell them at $4 each!
Guineas aren't for you folks in the city/suburbs, but make great tick eaters for us in the country.
They are also much too wild for the Victory Egg Garden confinement.

Good book to read:

Was reviewing this book while visiting the Charlottesville library while on my 30th wedding anniversary trip with Kathleen.

Food Not Lawns, by H. C. Flores, Chelsea Green Publishing
This will get you to looking at your yard from a different perspective. The 12th Chapter, The Next Generation was particularly good at focusing on children's role in your gardening ambitions. Look for it in a library near you.

George

Great Web Site for learning canning

Here is a great UTube from "Granny Miller". It is a 5 part video well done. Visual learners should appreciate this. Don't forget to visit her great blog as well. She lives in Western PA.

http://www.youTube.com/watch?v=JeSQmYK8uE4&NR=1


http://grannymillerblog.blogspot.com

Urban Chickens Coming to an area near you soon

See the below article with attached link.

Please consider lobbying your elected officials to make chickens legal for everyone!


http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1189350.html
Posted on Sun, May. 10, 2009
Urban chicken movement taking roost in KC area
By JOE LAMBE
The Kansas City Star
Chickens could be coming to roost in a backyard near you.

Across the country and the metropolitan area, people are joining the national urban chicken movement, sometimes turning outlaw to raise the birds.

The movement started with the rationale that raising chickens fits in with efforts toward local and pure foods, supporters say, and the eggs are fresh and flavorful. The animals also are entertaining pets, many say.

Today, Overland Park homeowner David Crupper will seek a special-use permit to house up to four chickens, even though he already has the birds and a homemade coop in his backyard.

No disrespect for the law was intended, he said, but he had to buy the chicks before a farm supply business stopped selling them for the year. Crupper, 25, a financial adviser, is far from a hippie, he said, but he wants to get great eggs from “the girls.”

“It’s a nice little hobby people can get behind,” he said, and he thinks his neighbors will support him.

Crupper has mailed certified letters to all of the neighbors within 200 feet and has posted a sign in his front yard advising them of the Planning Commission meeting.

But precedent isn’t on Crupper’s side. Four years ago, another Overland Park family tried to get such a permit. By a vote of 7-5, the City Council wouldn’t allow it.

Opponents said then that chickens did not belong in Overland Park. Some said the birds were unsanitary.

Overland Park City Councilman Jim Hix, who voted against the chickens in 2005, said this week that he would probably do so again.

“Wanting eggs is not unique,” he said. “It’s not a good idea to have chickens in a suburban area under normal circumstances.”

In Mission, the City Council recently sent to committee a proposal to change its law to allow urban chickens. Jerritt Dayhoff requested the change because her family would like to raise five or six chickens. She is a former Jackson County public defender who grew up on a farm, she said.

“Chickens are a heck of a lot quieter and cleaner than dogs,” said Dayhoff, 33. They make interesting pets, she said, and “It’s nice to tell your kids your breakfast came from Myrtle or Madge.”

But Councilman John Weber, 77, said he has seen the city grow out of farmland and sees no reason to go back.

“If we’re going to be residential, we ought to be residential,” he said.

Some cities on board

In 2004, Madison, Wis., was among the first of several cities to change laws to allow limited numbers of chickens, but usually not crowing roosters. New York City has long allowed chickens. The birds live in urban areas in Chicago; Albuquerque, N.M.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and other cities.

Many Web sites and Backyard Poultry magazine support the effort, which they say is still growing in this country, Great Britain and Canada.

BackYardChickens.com has 30,000 members — up from 20,000 last December — and it grows by 100 members a day, said its owner, Rob Ludlow.

KT LaBadie, an Albuquerque graduate student who started urbanchickens.org, said people are tearing out lawns to grow vegetables, and chickens are a natural next step.

Some cities have changed their laws because so many people were keeping chickens illegally, she said.

Afoul of the law

In Kansas City, residents are allowed to have chickens only if they are 100 feet away from the nearest home or business, and the birds are not allowed to roam.

That hasn’t stopped two women in different Kansas City neighborhoods from raising chickens illegally, and they say they are doing it for the fresh eggs.

At one house, nine big chickens roam in a fenced backyard where a wooden chicken coop looks like a garden shed. The 28-year-old homeowner has given names to all nine of her chickens, and she has pictures of herself with each on her MySpace page. The hens produce about six or seven eggs a day, and she sells or trades any extra eggs to pay for feed.

In another Kansas City neighborhood, a 49-year-old woman raises just one chicken.

The hen, called simply Chicken, spends time in the garden this time of year, scratching up the soil and fertilizing it with its droppings. In winter, it lives in a coop in the basement. Chicken lays about five eggs a week.

Light enforcement

Both of the Kansas City women said their neighbors haven’t complained, and some are checking into getting chickens themselves.

So does that mean more chickens and lawbreaking are on the way?

Dave Marak, a supervisor with Kansas City animal control, said a crew recently took five illegal chickens to the animal shelter, something it does occasionally.

Few people retrieve chickens there because of a $25 pickup fee and $10 a day in expenses, he said, plus chicken owners could get fined.

The fine is up to $250, but judges generally don’t impose anywhere near that, and cases sometimes get dismissed, he said.

Animal control generally goes after chickens only when someone complains, he said.

“Usually if a complaint comes in, it’s because they’re letting them run loose or a new neighbor comes in,” he said.

Marak takes no position on the controversy other than to note that strong forces are in play.

“There’s nothing better than a fresh egg,” he said.

HEAV Convention

After 3 long HARD days of work, the Lansing clan has drug themselves into the house and will have to unpack later.

I do want to take a moment to thank all of those who stopped by our booth #404, talked with us about their gardening experiences, listened to us talk about the Victory Egg Garden and supported us with the purchase of books, plans, soaps, salves, or whatever. We will be rapidly adding more of our book products to the web site, so if you don't immediately see what you found at the show on our site, please come back again, or email us with how we can assist you.

It was real exciting to have Joel Salatin stop by our booth between his talks and say some encouraging words to our ambitions. We bought the MP3 recordings of all the talks so I look forward to listening to Joel's messages since we were working to hard to hear him. If I understood Him correctly He has just changed his talks and is now addresing the need and ability for more families not living on real farms to grow more of their own food. This was the first location/time for him to deliver this new focus. Either great minds think alike, or we have a common Father in Heaven who is calling his people to a greater degree of food security and independance from the current corporate food model now at work.

PLEASE, for those of you living in counties or cities/towns that do not currently permit citizens to have a limited number of hens, contact your representatives and express your desire for more freedom to engage in healthy, productive past times like gardening with chickens. I will continue to work with others in the central VA area to lobby for change. If you live in this area, email and request your email address be added to my growing data base to coordinate events calling on boards for this change.

Anyone out there want to know more about growing your own food and preserving it by canning, dehydrating, or freezing? Call me and we can schedule a talk or workshop for your location. In the meantime, keep working in those gardens, building your skills, and remember to take a friend with you to enjoy the quiet times in the morning of your garden while the dew is still on the roses.

George

Will be at the HEAV Conv. this week end in Richmond

Days of Old Herb Farm and the Victory Egg Garden will be at he Home Education Assoc. of VA annual convention this weekend at the Richmond Convention Center downtown. ( www.heav.org/convention ).


Our display will include a model of the Victory Egg Garden with small run (live chickens included), along with our plans, Victory Egg Garden book, many excellent gardening and homesteading books from Storey Publishers, as well as Emily's soaps and Kathleen's herbal salves. On Friday afternoon, during session #3 at 3 to 4pm, I will be doing a 60 minute workshop talk on getting started with your back yard gardening ambitions and will have a Q&A session for the last 20 minutes or so. The HEAV Convention is always great with 5 or 6000 people attending and loads of exhibitors. Our booth will be about one "block" down from the entrace and on a left corner. Stop by and visit!

In April, Kathleen found a great price deal on apples. Probably last falls put into cooler storage and they needed to sell them. They were a little soft when using the apple peeler, but by holding the apple onto it and turning both to get it started, it all worked out pretty well. Here's the video of our processing them for the dehydrator.