A post in research: food sovereignty

This one is a trip. How these people found me i dunno but they were like "Oz, you absolutely, positively have to get on board with this" and I'm a republican hyper-conservative so the first thing i say if you tell me what to do is you better be ready for a fight. But they were like Oz, calm down and listen.

So i tried.

They were like "how many kinds of apples are there?" and i said lots, surely loads of them. and then they said "how many varieties are grown now" and they had me. surely just a few. and these guys just went nuts on me. out of all the 50 agricultural staples we used to grow in the USA and in Missouri alone, we only produce like 3 of them now.

and if you have ever in your life tried to argue with a man from the Ozarks then you just stepped in the sheep dip. they had my back up against the wall and said "can you feed yourself and your community? and with the fear of God in my heart i said no. it was the only honest answer.

i can't or i havent. i don't have farms and fields, i don't have silage, i don't have a root celler. and i know not about pickling or preservation because i was taught to be a hunter and yes i did neglect my lessons in farming.

but these boys from the Ozarks are just pain in the ass because they are like "what are you going to do about it?"

me? i planned to sell them hot dogs. but these guys, i swear, they must have all been made sun-dancers. they are all crazy as poophouse rats. they want us all to start growing food on every available scrap of land.

and it is their intent to "restore food soverignty" which means every community should be entirely self-sufficient. and they can point to all kinds of economic models and say if Osama Bin Laden comes to town we'll all have enough to eat. i'm like "ok guys, anything you say, just don't kill me".

but there you go. they have a point. if we have a mission, if we can agree about anything, isnry't it service? so what do we do if and when the people have no money and they are hungry?

think of it. we're resellers. we contrbute exactly nothing to the production cycle. we are "heat and eat". everything we serve is born from the produce of another person's labor. from the water in our taps to the product we serve, can you say it's yours? can you produce it?

do you know how to birth a calf? can you raise chickens? do you know how to churn butter? do you know how to make cheese? what kind of cheese? it took us about 200 years to replicate cheese making in the USA.

what are here to do? i say we're here to feed the people. that's my answer. in this whole world i can't find a substitute for people. humans. what makes us evil is what makes us cool. we consume everything in sight. and then we have kids and they just start eating everything in sight.

what is the way out? please take it from me before these men of the Ozarks show up at your door. they tell us to be producers again and not consumers.

be producers and not consumers.

boys, i live in a desert. unless the world has a major defficienty for prickly-pear jelly then we are in major trouble in the new economy.

GROW THINGS. SUSTAIN YOURSELVES.

Shhhhh.  You'll wake the country.

I have Black Angus cows and Pigs. We buy our Chiken from a local grower. The cows and pigs will be processed for the Food sercice company. 5 Apple trees and one peach tree. The Garden is 150 feet long with Corn, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes,cucumbers for pickles, all kinds of Squash and pumpkins, onions cabbage,lettuce,peppers,beans. The tomatoes are for the Cafe, I just paid $42 a flat can't wait untill they are ready. The corn is for the Cafe and animal feed. I grew up in the cement world and its nice to see what a city boy could do with a bit of dirt............Some of the best conversations I have all day are with the Cows and Pigs. When they give me any **** I turn it into fertilizer, I can't say the same about humans..........................Bill

boys i dunno about this one. i can run a cart but these guys are saying "feed a nation"

yeah, i talk so big like i know everything. how the hell do we transition from a hot dog cart to feeding an entire nation?

well dang it and curse my eyes. curse me wicked for saying this.

it's a depression boys. there ain't gonna be enough to go around. somebody is going to sleep hungry. and i'd rather it be me.

hey, tell  you the truth, i don't even need money. not only that, i hate the crap. man, as far as i can tell, everything was fine in my life until money came into it. there were plenthy of fish in every river and the animals were just hopping into my traps. we wanted for nothing until money happened.

before money everything was free.

and i am wicked pissed. i don't blame you people, it's not all your fault but before money everything was free.

wells that was a total set-up. i rhetorically boxed you into a corner or tried to. see what what's-his-name that thinks i am fictitious? i can pull the native american card.

it is currenty  highly unfashionable to pick on native americans. whereas it used to be all the rage. go figure.

hey before i totally  wear out your patience, lemme tell you one more thing. one time i was bouncing along in my pickepup truck and i saw the strangest thing i ever did see. right exactly  in the middle of nowhere was this total hippy dude with this big-ass sign that said TOURING USA FROM DENMARK" and i had to stop becaue there were a couple of things you don't do in Arizona. not at that time. number one, don't have long hair. and number two, don't have long hair and smile. and number three, don't have long hair and a smile and bare feet with a sign that says TOURING USA FROM DENMARK because that would get you killed in the old Arizona.

Trust me on this one, the saying is "they will never find the body"

Trust Ozdogs say some? Who would trust Ozdogs? Who for that matter would trust a United States Marine? What about a marine who did morgue duty? What about a morgue-duty marine who sees body parts as what he serves as hot dogs and wakes up screaming of nights?

Because i honestly and truly want your life to be better than mine. Somebody might as well have some fun around here. So to my greatest critics on these boards, way to go gentlemen. Impress me. Make yourselves rich and laugh in my face. there's one thing i'm doing that you ain't.

i'm being a dad. or i'm trying to. it''s about as tough a job as i ever tried to measure up to.

OzDogs


.....before money everything was free.

and i am wicked pissed. i don't blame you people, it's not all your fault but before money everything was free.

Before money, only the physically strong survived. (If I wanted something, I clubbed you over the head and took it) Money is an equalizer, and allows the physically weak to compete with the strong. Think about it.
 
If our economy crashes and there is a problem with the food supply, you can have all the chickens and your garden, but you will need to be physically strong to protect them from those that will want to club you over the head and take your stuff. (Or have the money to buy weapons!)
 
Money ain't all that bad, but people can be bad if they get obsessed with money.

TrentonDog

OzDogs


.....before money everything was free.

and i am wicked pissed. i don't blame you people, it's not all your fault but before money everything was free.

Before money, only the physically strong survived. (If I wanted something, I clubbed you over the head and took it) Money is an equalizer, and allows the physically weak to compete with the strong. Think about it.
 
If our economy crashes and there is a problem with the food supply, you can have all the chickens and your garden, but you will need to be physically strong to protect them from those that will want to club you over the head and take your stuff. (Or have the money to buy weapons!)
 
Money ain't all that bad, but people can be bad if they get obsessed with money.

 If you have money you could always throw it away. If you don't have money its a bit harder to find it. We all start off with the first cry when we are born. Its what you do after that that counts. Some of us are still crying and others are doing somethng about it. ......Whats nice about living in the USA is, you can have a fresh start at every wake up call, some people just dont take it.....  In Some countries people  don't have that chance.............................................Bill

ok i must have done the worst job ever selling this idea. i din't do a good job atall. what these guys have is a way of approaching a community, seeing what kind of population it has and then determining how many acres are required in production to feed the people. So they got it down to math.

and it's not just an idea. these guys are doing it. they honestly intend to make their town self-sufficient in terms of food. they are so far beyond "you are what you eat", their message is "own what you eat".

which leaves me pretty far behind the game because i never was any good at growing anything, i'm more of an animal man. i can tell ya chickens and bunnies start to finish and cows? well, we always liked the Jersays because they are a whole lot smaller and easier to manage. and i never cared much for goats because if holsteins weren't enough, who has time in their life to fight with a goat?

Mike you got me nailed. i was trying to conjure something. i'm just not all that good at it. see i had is dream where i was trying to figure out the truth of the truth of the universe but i couldn't get he words down right. i got close. i was like "what if God got thrown under a bus" or "what if God was a platypus" but as usual, some guy on Youtube got it.

What if God smoked cannibus?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MKyyTp3Ml0

Now kids, don't get me wrong, i'm not advocating drug use. just because drugs are super-duper fun, cheap and easily available doesn't mean you should do them. Don't do drugs at the beach, on the boat or tailgate party or wherever good times are had. Don't take advantage of the money-saving 18-pack. Don't drive on drugs, don't drive for drugs, let the drugs come to you. i think it's good advice, i'll stake my reputation on it. but don't take my word for it, i got an expert here, i got a 12 year old daughter.

she just rolled her eyes at me and said "oh daddy".

i'm getting eye-rolled by a 12 year old. and WTF is this "oh daddy" thing? i'm like kid, momma don't even call me daddy. i'm like honey, sit down, your momma don't call me daddy, when momma wants my attention she hurls sharp and heavy objects at daddy.

she's gonna turn out to be a regular angel.

Let's try to keep this from becoming more bizzare than it already is.  Stay on topic or let it die.