Homestead mailing list

["Tracy J" <tracy9j AT frontiernet.net>]

Wow.  You guys are really kind of hard core on this topic.  I suppose that 
we could look down our noses at people who don't garden or people who use 
Starbucks as their coffee pot.  I mean, doesn't everyone have a big yard to 
grow most of their food?  Doesn't everyone live in a neighborhood zoned for 
agriculture so they can raise eggs/milk/meat?

I guess those people that have been born, raised, and work (or not work) in 
the inner cities are just whiners when they are told by the government that 
they can live just fine by using the governments "Thrifty Plan" that figures 
you can go to the supermarket to buy your food and provide well balanced, 
nutritious meals for $3.66 a day, per person, in a family of four with an 
income of $20,000 a year.  Not to mention living in areas that charge a hell 
of a lot more for groceries than the big box grocery stores in the 'Burbs.

Granted, the majority of people in this country are overweight and eat 
poorly.  People probably go out to eat at McDonald's way too often, too. 
But lets tell the people who really are hungry to go dumpster diving for 
their food.  It's still good.  Not too moldy and the extra penicillin 
probably wouldn't hurt them anyway if it was.

Take it from someone who has experienced large unwanted weight lose because 
of no money and who has dumpster dived to feed herself and her kid.  It 
isn't very fun to be really and truly hungry.  To go for days until the 
garden has something that has ripened enough to eat.  And then, wait until 
the kid has eaten enough so that you can maybe get something off his plate. 
It is something that I will never forget.  But I was lucky.  I had a 1/2
acre of land and a garden.  Otherwise, there would have been much more 
begging and dumpster diving because in those days, there were no food 
shelves and the Mission charged 50 cents per meal and I didn't have even 
that much money to give.

Tracy Julian
in East North-Central Minnesota