Expanding Our Knowledge

I’ve been reading Joel Salatin lately, starting with his book Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front, and I’m currently absorbed in You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. Probably, it will come as no surprise that I recommend both, and really, anything that Joel has written. He is, after all, one of my personal heroes.

He and his family run Polyface Farms, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It is a pasture-based farm, meaning the animals consume grass rather than grain, and they focus on providing the animals with a non-industrial, non-confinement, diet-as-nature-intended existence. They pursue perennial polyculture, not industrially farmed monoculture growing commodity crops from GMO seeds, which is unfortunately what most of the farmland in this country has turned into over the last several decades. I’m learning so much about farming, and the government’s views on it, as well.

Did you know that Model T cars used to have a switch that allowed you to run on alcohol based fuel instead of petroleum gas? Many farmers were making their own fuels. In fact, there is some debate over whether the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was in cahoots with oil tycoons – the WCTU are the ladies who you see in the old photos holding signs with slogans such as “Lips That Have Touched Alcohol Shall Never Touch Mine.” That’s right – many believe that Prohibition here in the U.S. was driven by the oil industry to nip the burgeoning alternative alcohol fuel commerce in the bud. And before you poo-poo the idea, let’s think about what we learned about the Mineral Management Service agency over the past couple of years, and in particular, last year during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Government and oil magnates are still in cahoots with one another.

But can you imagine how different things might be if Prohibition had never happened? If that alternative alcohol fuel movement had been allowed to grow? If farmers had been able to not be dependent upon fossil fuels to run their vehicles? I’m sure they’d have figured out a way to run their tractors and other equipment on it. Farmers are resourceful folk, and always looking accomplish tasks with as little cash outflow as possible, because they don’t make a lot of it to begin with. Just imagine how things might be different today. Sure, there’d still be a market for oil, but it would have competition. There would be a true alternative available. Wow.

Besides that example, there are countless others demonstrating our government’s bias and favoring of the “big guy” over small farming and industry. George is writing a post on the subject of food safety, so watch for more information on that soon.

I think that anyone interested in the food supply in our country should read Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front, even if you are not a farmer and never plan to be. The insight it will provide you regarding what the local producers you may already be dealing with go through on a regular basis will bring you a new appreciation for the local food you enjoy. If you haven’t already, I also recommend watching the documentaries Food Inc, and The Future Of Food. Also, Farmageddon, when it is released. (You can watch the trailer at their website.)  It’s so important that we understand our food system, know what we are putting into our bodies, and what options we are limited to because the government feels we are not intelligent enough to make good choices for ourselves. Let’s change that perception. Let’s get educated and informed.

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