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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Not about food miles

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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Not about food miles
  • Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:40:53 -0500

Laurie Ann,
I haven't been following the thread, so no comments on the original. I just wanted to say that your thoughts and letter were very well stated. Thank you.

I put it this way to people: "If you want Change, keep it in your pocket. Buy less, buy local, make it or grow it yourself."
The Bigness of It All is overwhelming. The conspiracies really do run deep. It's no wonder that people feel helpless when every turn of a corner reveals that they can never do enough to make up for what has been destroyed. Fear itself isn't the only thing we have to worry about, but it has been used to sell things to us, including more fears.
Freedom isn't something we can get at the bottom of an oil well. It's what we get when we don't owe our souls to the Company Store in exchange for double decaf latte's and the fancy cupholders attached to expensive cars.
Here's my letter that was published in the Milwaukee Journal (pre-edit; they took out my tag line):

Who honestly believes that the global System of systems is going to solve its problems the same way they created them: through FDA or other agencies that don't grow any food? The biggest problem with food safety in this country is that people don't spend enough of their budgets on food, and are left with 'disposable' income to throw away on things they don't need. Every home has television to tell them to buy more televisions, but not every home has a garden. The same customers at the markets who own a $200,000 boat or an ugly second home 'up nort' will raise holy hell when a local farmer asks them to pay 4 bits for a local tomato that is a work of love and art.
If America wants safer food, they only have to look next door and be willing to pay someone what food is worth.
Safe food doesn't come from rich bureaucrats, it comes from well-paid local farms who can afford to pay for the labor to keep it clean and care for their animals the old fashioned way: IN PERSON. Cheap food comes from machines and agribusinesses. SAFE food comes from farmers and gardens. More regulations by the government will only continue the trend of concentrating the logistics of food into a few corporations, whose goals are to make the quickest profits possible. Marketing 'geniuses' of government and agribusiness work together to take the money that should be paid by consumers directly to farmers and siphon it away from local economies into the Global Economy. The end result is that the money gets transported out, food gets transported in, and our children get drafted into the wars to fight for high oil prices. As long as Americans want cheap food and expensive cars, their sons and daughters will be dying for oil we don't really need.
If you want Change, keep it in your pocket, buy local, make things for yourself.
From: Laurie Ann Powell <laurie@powellclan.com>
Subject: [Livingontheland] Not about food miles
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <1181155076.2882.26.camel@localhost>
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I agree with you, Paul, this contained some serious nonsense. 

I note that this kind of article seems to be aimed at paralyzing us into
helplessness - each time we are touched to consider action by exposure
to a new concept, another article comes out to make us feel dumb if we
actually try to change anything. We're being herded into a corner where
we'll let the "experts" run everything.

Understanding "food miles" can be the first snip of the thread that
helps us unravel the whole web of irresponsible consumerism.

For that reason, I try not to dismiss any small gesture toward making a
change.  I think it's better to boycott Walmart- as hopeless as that may
seem - or to "count food miles" or grow even one tomato plant rather
than to wait until I have mastered the whole global ecology before
acting. Baby steps with course correction along the way.I h

Laurie Ann




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