Farm Food Freedom Needs a Little Push. From a Few Thousand Pushers.
Liz usually writes about farm food freedom, but she's busy in a statehouse somewhere (probably with Bernadette) actually making it happen right now. Liz and I talk every week or so, and this week we talked about "what's next on the to-do list?" In other words, what can the rest of us do, out in the field, to support the activists, like Liz, like Bernadette, like Joel, like Sally, like Martha, Mark, Randy, Michael, Montana (and too many others to list!)... What can we regular folks do to support the activists in their efforts on our behalf? What can we do to move along the reclaiming of our food rights: what we eat, what we drink and from whom we procure it? What can we do to prevent another oyster farm closing down due to nefarious government agency action, another state stealing back property rights, a dairy farm being punished into bankruptcy, a city using ordinance and suspicions to SWAT a self-sufficient property owner, more Farmageddon-type actions (and too many other grievances to list)?
There are so many ways we can push back individually, and a master list is in the works. (We all need reminders, eh?) But what if we put together a short list to do together? Two or three items that don't require Herculean efforts, that require only a tiny deviation from the daily routine. A short list we could each commit to doing for, say, 90 days? There are over 4,000 people following the Nourishing Liberty Facebook page and 1,000 email subscribers. Would a fifth of you -- a thousand people acting together -- cause a ripple? Maybe not to the statehouse, but certainly in the local community. And that's where all real change begins, ask any of the activists listed above.
What if, by making a tiny tweak to how we live our lives, even for only 90 days, we were to open a few people's eyes to the world that awaits us if we don't act, and to the world we can have if we do? Couldn't hurt to give it a shot. Here are three small tweaks we came up with that support farm food freedom activists. Pick one, two or all three. If you are doing these, persuade a friend, family member, or neighbor to join you.
1. Buy at least one food item a week from a local farmer.
Eggs, cheese, raw milk, veggies, meats. You might not even have to go to the farmer -- some local grocery and health food stores carry products supplied by real farmers in your area. This is the number one thing we must do if we want access to local farm-produced food. If our local small farmers can't make a living selling locally, they cannot survive. Period. To find a local farmer, find your closest Weston A. Price Foundation chapter and ask for a list. If you don't have a WAPF chapter near you, ask at farmer's markets and health food stores. Ask at chiropractors' and alternative health care practitioners' offices.
2. Buy whole chickens.
Even if you buy them from the Big Ag producers (i.e., Tyson), buy them whole. Here's why:
Real food farmers sell whole chicken, they can't afford to sell pieces. Be in the habit of buying whole chickens so when the opportunity presents itself to buy from a local farmer, buying whole is normal.
Not a bit of that chicken's life is wasted.
It's more frugal to buy broilers than pieces.
You will know what to do and how to eat when the SHTF and all we can get are whole chickens from local farmers. Or your own backyard :)
It used to be "common knowledge" that chicken processors take the savageable parts from sick or injured chickens and sell them as pieces. Surely that is no longer the case with sick birds, but it is still true for injured birds (scroll down to "Quality Control").
3. Ask your grocer for more real food and organic items.
They won't think of it on their own. Let them know you want more non-GMO foods available, that you appreciate the Non-GMO Project verified foods already on the shelves. If it's true, tell them you don't buy any foods with GMOs in them (which leaves out most of the store...) Last summer, I mentioned to the produce guy at two different Kroger stores that I'd like to have organic Granny Smith apples. Lo and behold, within a month, organic Granny Smith apples show up in all four of the Krogers I frequent. Even though I might be the only one buying them, those apples have been there ever since. And we are talking small towns in Kentucky... Kroger also carries Dave's Kombucha, so they are listening to the market. We just need to make that market holler a little louder a little more often.
Bonus Item :)
Join the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund for $50/year (payment plans available) so that the farmers and activists have good, knowledgeable, experienced legal defense when they are accused of the crime of providing real food to you and me and our families. If each of us implemented at least one of these for the next 90 days, then shared them with friends, families and neighbors, we'd certainly cause a ripple. And we'd show the activists that we do indeed support their actions, we stand behind them. Maybe we aren't willing or able to take the risks they take, but we can certainly further the cause. Please join us for 90 days. What are you doing today to reclaim your food rights? Please share in the comments so we have other ideas!
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