Folks This Ain't Normal

The frozen tundra of Maine in January is a great time to dream of warmer days to come, the Brunswick Farmer's Market, getting outside, and getting hands dirty. Yes, some have dirty hands year around, 24/7, regardless of environment or season, striving to contribute to the matrix of controlling, deceiving, manipulating, and keeping us in our place as service cash cows so they can get at what they really want - money. But gardening isn't really about that, is it?

A friend has succinctly repeated a single phrase in response to articles about corruption, restrictions on people, inane laws and ordinances, etc.: "Follow the money." And my dad aptly stated that whenever there's a pool of money there will always be some politician (banker, town manager, town councilor, developer, lawyer ...fill in the blank) out there to find a way to take it. Both statements are the truth.

Our food, and how we get it is definitely all about the aforementioned. And if we look at the Hydra (see previous article "Revealing the Hydra", Jan.16, 2015), our food source, including freedom to choose and full disclosure about our foods is one of the Hydra's heads and a way to control us. According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the basic foundation of needs such as food, shelter, love, and safety have to be met before we can proceed and become fully actualized human beings. The Hydra hits at our basic needs for nourishment, but we can change the progression, sever this Hydra head, and take back our food.

Most have become disconnected from their food source and think nothing of the nicely plastic-wrapped chicken parts, ground beef, and bacon when buying it. Perhaps if there were live chickens, cows, pigs in the direct vicinity of meat sections of the grocery stores we'd feel some empathy, and eat less meat. But that's not an effective marketing gimmick for those in the business. Some people won't eat chicken eggs raised on small farms or homes, but prefer their eggs from store-bought cartons. All chicken eggs are coming from the hind end of some hen, so understanding this disconnect is difficult except to say the conditioning has been effective.

One of the best crowd-sourcing alternate news sites is: corbettreport.com

Episode 299 - Solutions: Guerilla Gardening is a comprehensive video (or podcast) about our food; where's it coming from, what's in it, who and what is Big Food, what are the health and environmental implications of GMO foods (it used to be called "Frankenfood"; notice the semantic dialectic in play with a change to "GMO", or even "GM"?):

The video of various clips, in total, runs about 55 minutes, and well-worth the time. But directly at the the Corbett Report site there's a listing of the different clips to choose from:

• Horse meat, Hanford leak, Obama's Oscar - New World Next Week
• Question: Why is the McDonald's Website So Scary
• McDonald's Food Scandal in Shanghai/China Uncensored
• Insider Threats, Poor Food, Supreme Genes - New World Next Week
• China's "Garbage Fed Beef" Food Scandal
• Pink Slime - What is REALLY in Your Hamburger
• Chiquita Banana Terrorist Connections?
• Genetic Fallacy: How Monsanto Silences Scientific Dissent
• Dispelling the Big Ag Myth
• Wave of Suicides Among Indian Farmers
• FY2013 Annual Report on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas in Japan
• Episode 241 - The Truth About The Gene Revolution
• William Engdahl: Seeds of Destruction
• 5 GMO Myths Busted
• Joel Salatin - Folks This Ain't Normal
• The EyeOpener Report - How to Boycott Big Food
• Ron Finley - A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA
• Introduction - My Community Garden Journal - Week 1, 2015
• Food is Free Project
• Food is Free Project - How to Build a Raised Wicking Bed
• That's the Catch ("Question Everything") by Hank Musaers
• Become a Corbett Report member 

One of the best parts about this episode is identifying solutions. And one solution was found by Ron Finley, guerilla gardener in South Central LA; he says 26.5 Million Americans live in a food desert and he wanted to change that along with the health problems in his community associated with eating processed "Big Food". Ron's solution was to plant a food forest in front of his house on the little strip of land between the sidewalk and street the city says property owners are responsible for maintaining.

When someone complained, the city told Ron he'd have to rip up his garden or be given a warrant - for growing food. Instead, a campaign was launched, petition signatures gathered (change.org) and LA Green Grounds formed (volunteer, "pay it forward" food source for the people).

Ron says, "I'm manufacturing my own reality, not living in the reality manufactured for me."

And this is something all of us can do, once we understand the truth.