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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Those who can grow will eat/ was Poorest pay the most to eat in nation's 'food deserts'

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: rmwj@SOONERNET.COM, "Community Food Security Coalition" <comfood-l@listproc.tufts.edu>
  • Cc: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Those who can grow will eat/ was Poorest pay the most to eat in nation's 'food deserts'
  • Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 11:48:33 -0600


"We're not asking to become peasants again.'' ? "... for most working
families and the elderly, few of whom have experience growing and storing
food, farming isn't practical" ? Well, practical or not they better start
learning while they still can. Those who can will eat. Those who can't, won't.

I can't add much to Waldrop's excellent points except to say you and
millions of others may not have a choice but to be peasants again. 90% of the
people are blind to the economic indicators (which are unanimously negative)
and don't want to hear anything negative, but they were blindsided in 1929
too. Already much of the middle class has slipped unnoticed into the
unemployed, much of the unemployed has given up looking and were dropped from
the official figures, welfare is being cut across the board, most states are
unofficially bankrupt, soup kitchens and shelters are turning away untold
thousands of families with children, and the underclasses are growing in
hidden pockets all over the country. For months the news has told us even
white collar jobs are moving overseas, blue collar is old news. For many
groups the New Depression is already here and worsening, those laid off, two
and three job families drowning in debt, new graduates flipping burgers,
elderly scraping by on social security, the disabled and sick.

Where we live people do know how to can and freeze, but they've mostly
forgotten how to grow your own. We work to remedy that here. We have no
problem growing with under 10" precip and 3 months growing season. My own
aunts and uncles had a small farm in Kansas and never missed a meal in the
Depression. Our forefathers (and foremothers) knew how to get by, and we have
enormous advantages they didn't have. We have the Internet and limitless
knowledge of plants and animals to draw upon. We can communicate instantly
and network with distant growers everywhere. We have examples like Waldrop
and the 4-season guy, Elliot Coleman in Maine, and thousands of others.

paul@largocreekfarms.net
http://medicinehill.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 7/12/2004 at 11:07 AM Robert Waldrop wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>> But for most working families and the elderly,
>few of whom have
>> experience growing and storing food, farming
>isn't practical, said
>> Thomas Lyson, a sociologist at Cornell
>University who studies food
>> deserts.> ''Even farmers tend not to grow their
>own food,'' he said. ''What are
>> you going to do, have a cow so you can milk it
>12 months a year? We're
>> not asking to become peasants again.''
>
>Peasants indeed. This kind of elitist attitude is
>as big a problem as Wal Mart driving out smaller
>stores. I don't have an acreage, I live on an
>urban lot close to downtown Oklahoma City. Each
>year I harvest more food from my property, and I'm
>pretty sure I haven't spent more than $600 spread
>over five years for plant material and seeds, the
>most expensive things have been the fruit trees,
>but the most I paid for any of them is about $18.
>I often buy ten cent packets of seed from Dollar
>Stores. Gardening is a very easy skill to learn,
>I always suggest that people start with
>www.squarefootgardening.com , which also takes a
>lot of the work out of gardening. Instead of
>buying materials for the "Mel's Mix", I just use
>compost mixed with straw. For apartment dwellers
>and renters, there is a possibility of organizing
>more community gardens. And I think it is easier
>to organize community gardens than to recruit a
>supermarket, cheaper also, and it should be
>remembered that supermarkets owned by absentee
>owners suck money out of a community and sell mass
>market foods and meats that are produced using
>extremely inhumane practices. No, I am not
>buying a cow or a goat for milk, but this idea
>that we need MORE big supermarkets everywhere is
>taking us in the wrong direction.
>
>Rural areas have even more potential to supply
>much of their own locally produced food. People
>can learn to can and freeze foods. My house
>freezer is stashed with grean beans, cooked pinto
>beans, corn on the cob, and cooked tomato sauce.
>Not a single bit of that food originated in a
>supermarket, and I have a working class income,
>not an upper class income. If I had a couple of
>kids, I'm sure I'd be eligible for food stamps.
>Thus far this year I have made plum jam and
>mulberry jam, and am gearing up for the "Great
>Peach Escapade" as the peaches on the trees I
>planted four years ago are abundant and on the
>cusp of ripeness. The peach escapade will include
>making peach jam, peach pie filling, and peach
>wine. Soon after the peaches the grapes will be
>ready. Most of my canning equipment for boiling
>water canning I bought second hand at thrift
>stores and garage sales. I have two housemates,
>and they help, so the work goes quickly.
>
>One asset available in poor neighborhoods is the
>church kitchen. One thing that foundations or
>people with money to donate can do for "food
>deserts" is to buy food production equipment (such
>as large boiling water and pressure canners) and
>give them to churches in these food deserts, and
>then sponsor classes in how to preserve foods.
>I've been talking about this for quite some time
>but it is so counter-cultural I think the
>opportunities just don't register with most
>people. Every time we turn on the television we
>are taught to be helpless consumers. And that's
>what people believe in: helpless consuming.
>
>I wish I had the time, I would go to these food
>deserts and preach a gospel of "Grow your own
>food" and "organize grocery cooperatives". As far
>as I am concerned, supermarkets should have "truth
>in food" signs over their entrances which read,
>"All Who Enter Here Abandon Any Hope of Good
>Nutrition and Taste."
>
>This article describes a specter of helplessness
>that boggles my mind. It shows that one of our
>desperate needs these days is for people to take
>personal responsibility for their own food supply.
>I am a nobody, a nothing, with no money and little
>influence. Even so, our local foods grocery
>cooperative is doing between $8k and $10k/month,
>and we are going to twice a month orders in August
>(instead of our present once a month format).
>This coop, with 237 members, grew out of my own
>personal decision to find farmers to buy food from
>and then once I had found such farmers, to go
>ahead and buy food from them. If had I waited on
>somebody else to do this for me, I would still be
>waiting and there would be no Oklahoma Food
>Cooperative.
>
>I am proud to be an urban peasant.
>
>Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma Food Cooperative
>Getting the right eats:
>www.oklahomafood.org/bobsblog/






  • [Livingontheland] Those who can grow will eat/ was Poorest pay the most to eat in nation's 'food deserts', Tradingpost, 07/12/2004

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