In the disconnected mind of modern America, a farm is a production unit for commodities-nothing more and nothing less. Because our land is zoned as agricultural, we cannot charge school kids for a tour of the farm because that puts us in the category of "Theme Park" Anyone paying for infotainment creates "Farmadisney," a strict no-no in agricultural zones.
Farms are not supposed to be places of enjoyment or learning. They are commodity production units dotting the landscape, just as factories are are manufacturing units and office complexes are service units. In the government's mind, integrating farm production with recreation and meaningful education creates a warped sense of agriculture.
The very notion of encouraging people to visit farms is blasphemous to an official credo that views even sparrows, starlings and flies as disease threats to immunocompromised plants and animals. Visitors entering USDA-blessed production unit farms must run through a gauntlet of toxic sanitation dips and don moon suits in order to keep their germs to themselves. Indeed, people are viewed as hazardous foreign bodies at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
Farmers who actually encourage folks to come to their farms "threaten" the health and welfare of their fecal concentration camp production unit neighbors, and therefore must be prohibited from bringing these invasive germ-dispensing humans onto their landscape. In the industrial agribusiness paradigm, farms must be protected from people, not to mention free-range poultry.
The notion that animals and plants can be raised in such a way that their enhanced immune system protects them from kindergarteners' germs, and that the animals actually thrive when marinated in human attention, never enters the minds of government officials dedicated to protecting precarious production units.
Farms are not supposed to be places of enjoyment or learning. They are commodity production units dotting the landscape, just as factories are are manufacturing units and office complexes are service units. In the government's mind, integrating farm production with recreation and meaningful education creates a warped sense of agriculture.
The very notion of encouraging people to visit farms is blasphemous to an official credo that views even sparrows, starlings and flies as disease threats to immunocompromised plants and animals. Visitors entering USDA-blessed production unit farms must run through a gauntlet of toxic sanitation dips and don moon suits in order to keep their germs to themselves. Indeed, people are viewed as hazardous foreign bodies at Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
Farmers who actually encourage folks to come to their farms "threaten" the health and welfare of their fecal concentration camp production unit neighbors, and therefore must be prohibited from bringing these invasive germ-dispensing humans onto their landscape. In the industrial agribusiness paradigm, farms must be protected from people, not to mention free-range poultry.
The notion that animals and plants can be raised in such a way that their enhanced immune system protects them from kindergarteners' germs, and that the animals actually thrive when marinated in human attention, never enters the minds of government officials dedicated to protecting precarious production units.
Thanks again to our guest writer, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.
We are re-"printing" his 2003 treatise, Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal...
Joel helps farmers and non-farmers alike to begin to understand the schizophrenic nature of the regulating agencies, the muddle headed logic that sickens us from the breakfast table to our midnight snacks, and is subsidized by government agencies from cradle to grave, burdening us all with the tragic costs of corporate welfare.
Food is medicine, it is supposed to feed our metabolism and support the healthy development of our bodies. Eating sick critters, depressed animals or ones that have never been allowed to spend a day walking around or just lying in the sun has long term consequences for our society, our culture and the next seven generations.
Joel's insight and critique of "modern" agricultural practices is even more important today than it was ten years ago, but the big money still seems to be on the side of confinement operations and those that reflect a total lack of respect for the creatures which will one day grace our tables.
Please share this information widely! This post is only the second in a six-part series that details the experience and insight of a true patriot, fighting with only truth on his side, the giant Goliath of corporate power, which is only a thinly veiled lie supported with unimaginable amounts of cash.
No comments:
Post a Comment