I will be posting six parts of Joel Salatin's Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal...
Joel raises grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, rabbits and more on a model diversified farmstead, Polyface Farms in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. His essay also contained a bit of introduction which I will include here, just to get things started and I would be remiss if I did not give credit to the courageous publication in which this first appeared, Acres Magazine, September 2003! It has guided me and come back repeatedly these nearly ten years and each time I read these words I am reminded of the sage words of Thomas Jefferson who said, "God help this nation if it continues twenty years without another revolution of this kind." (Of course, he was speaking of The Revolution)
"Everything I want to do is illegal. As if a highly bureaucratic regulatory system was not already in place, 9/11 fueled renewed acceleration to eliminate freedom from the countryside. Every time a letter arrives in the mail from a federal or state agriculture department my heart jumps like I just got sent to the principal's office.
And it doesn't stop with agriculture bureaucrats. It includes all sorts of government agencies, from zoning, to taxing, to food inspectors. These agencies are the ultimate extension of a disconnected, Greco-Roman, Western, egocentric, compartmentalized, reductionist, fragmented and linear thought process." states Joel.
My loyal readers can appreciate the need for a break. Even though I have posted seven entries per moon, (month) this will allow me a bit of time to let my own thoughts on many matters settle a bit. For this respite, I'm forever indebted to Joel Salatin. I thank him in advance for my "vacation" and wish him an honored part in the exponential growth of wisdom in our culture. Listen well my friends, forces beyond our imagining have placed themselves in the seats of power around the planet, we need to reclaim the high ground and point out that it is immoral to not only refuse to sanctify Mother Earth, but to rape and pillage her.
Those of us who choose to adapt to the seasons, live within the cycles of an intact ecology, those who understand and follow a "higher calling", or for those who choose to treat the planet at least as well as the biosphere treats us, may never be understood by the pencil pushers who regulate them into "outsider" obscurity are finding more and more truth to the idea that there is a qualitative difference between treating animals with respect and not doing so. The Lord and Lady bless healthy soil with organisms. These creatures sustain life. When their health becomes compromised, it can only work up the food chain to top predators like humans. The writing is on the wall about treating agriculture as most other manufacturing endeavors, getting bigger, and more technologically complex.
We all need to slow down and take a breath.
Joel raises grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, rabbits and more on a model diversified farmstead, Polyface Farms in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. His essay also contained a bit of introduction which I will include here, just to get things started and I would be remiss if I did not give credit to the courageous publication in which this first appeared, Acres Magazine, September 2003! It has guided me and come back repeatedly these nearly ten years and each time I read these words I am reminded of the sage words of Thomas Jefferson who said, "God help this nation if it continues twenty years without another revolution of this kind." (Of course, he was speaking of The Revolution)
"Everything I want to do is illegal. As if a highly bureaucratic regulatory system was not already in place, 9/11 fueled renewed acceleration to eliminate freedom from the countryside. Every time a letter arrives in the mail from a federal or state agriculture department my heart jumps like I just got sent to the principal's office.
And it doesn't stop with agriculture bureaucrats. It includes all sorts of government agencies, from zoning, to taxing, to food inspectors. These agencies are the ultimate extension of a disconnected, Greco-Roman, Western, egocentric, compartmentalized, reductionist, fragmented and linear thought process." states Joel.
My loyal readers can appreciate the need for a break. Even though I have posted seven entries per moon, (month) this will allow me a bit of time to let my own thoughts on many matters settle a bit. For this respite, I'm forever indebted to Joel Salatin. I thank him in advance for my "vacation" and wish him an honored part in the exponential growth of wisdom in our culture. Listen well my friends, forces beyond our imagining have placed themselves in the seats of power around the planet, we need to reclaim the high ground and point out that it is immoral to not only refuse to sanctify Mother Earth, but to rape and pillage her.
Those of us who choose to adapt to the seasons, live within the cycles of an intact ecology, those who understand and follow a "higher calling", or for those who choose to treat the planet at least as well as the biosphere treats us, may never be understood by the pencil pushers who regulate them into "outsider" obscurity are finding more and more truth to the idea that there is a qualitative difference between treating animals with respect and not doing so. The Lord and Lady bless healthy soil with organisms. These creatures sustain life. When their health becomes compromised, it can only work up the food chain to top predators like humans. The writing is on the wall about treating agriculture as most other manufacturing endeavors, getting bigger, and more technologically complex.
We all need to slow down and take a breath.
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