I heard a man on Wisconsin Public Radio today speaking out about the "organic" local growers. It would have been sad if he didn't really believe his dream. He spoke with such hyperbole and assurance and his words carried across the public airwaves impacting thousands in ripples, rushing out at light speed. Without objection or correction by the host, he claimed that if all the organic growers in the state put their farms to a test, they could not supply one story with enough of any type of fruit or vegetable to meet a single store's need. Like I said, it would have been funny if it were not tragic. His dream is to continue building larger and larger markets, so that some day we could have just one per county, or perhaps even less than that. Perhaps when they go back to cornering the entire market, grocers will be able to just have the one kind of lettuce again, rather than the half-dozen varieties that most stores have to carry now.
I have always had a penchant for talking to folks I meet from Russia. I always ask what the most foreign thing about America is. They inevitably mention the bread. This relates to the dream of the ultra wealthy quite well, so it is not too far a leap from my opening paragraph. In their hometown, these Russians always comment, there would be periods with no bread. When it was available, folks would stand in line to get it, even though the price was cheap, it was always good. here, they say, there is poor person bread and rich person bread and they sit side by side on the store shelves. you can pay a dollar for terrible bread, or five or more dollars for a good loaf. The dream of the ultra-wealthy has unfolded in an awful way. By eliminating as much of the cost of storage as possible, first pulverizing the grains to infinitesimally small pieces, the nutrients simply evaporate and thus even rats won't touch it. Then they dose it with preservatives and vitamins and call it good for you. The cost of packaging and transport of most bread is far higher than the cost of the ingredients. This is how profits are created in the old economic way of thinking.
Their dream is to keep things pretty much just like they are, each parasitic corporation taking just a bit from as many people as possible not only keeps them flying under the radar, but able to claim that none of us would like to do without them. Each round of government subsidy in turn leads to new avenues to increase profitability. The banks we bailed out are racking up record profits, while more than 100,000 families per month are losing their homes. Many of the folks who used to feel secure are becoming more and more desperate, but the debate is about how great it is that at least the banks are profitable. Imagine ending It's A Wonderful Life with everyone sending their bail-out money to Potter. In our way, that is exactly what we have done! Those who deemed themselves "too big to fail" have us up against a wall. they are the ones with all the cards. their dreams have become nightmares for us all.
My dream includes the good of others. I can see a future in which all the things I have learned, being made both useful and valuable to others. better yet, this dream is unfolding at this very moment. Through the process of sharing some of my knowledge, the future is changing. As I "speak", seeds are planted, or the soils of future thought are tilled. I bear the water to quench the thirsty, knowledge hungry sprouts of a new, more civil society. i am here to sat that I know of at least one organic farm that produced 100% of last winter's spinach for a store in the northernmost part of Wisconsin. I felt blessed to have a chance to eat some of it because it blew away any other spinach I have ever eaten. corporate food enterprises have become too used to assigning value to the process of filling bags with commodities that can lead to generation of money, rather than capturing their produce when it is the healthiest and bringing it to market the same day.
If we are to turn the ship of state around, wresting power from those who have become most used to it, we will all need to pull together and in unison pull away from corporate domination and push off in a new direction. My dream is a wake up call, and I bid you all a good night sleep. when you wake up, i hope it will be invigorated and refreshed for the next big step in changing bussiness as ususal and taking back our state, our nation, our world.
I have always had a penchant for talking to folks I meet from Russia. I always ask what the most foreign thing about America is. They inevitably mention the bread. This relates to the dream of the ultra wealthy quite well, so it is not too far a leap from my opening paragraph. In their hometown, these Russians always comment, there would be periods with no bread. When it was available, folks would stand in line to get it, even though the price was cheap, it was always good. here, they say, there is poor person bread and rich person bread and they sit side by side on the store shelves. you can pay a dollar for terrible bread, or five or more dollars for a good loaf. The dream of the ultra-wealthy has unfolded in an awful way. By eliminating as much of the cost of storage as possible, first pulverizing the grains to infinitesimally small pieces, the nutrients simply evaporate and thus even rats won't touch it. Then they dose it with preservatives and vitamins and call it good for you. The cost of packaging and transport of most bread is far higher than the cost of the ingredients. This is how profits are created in the old economic way of thinking.
Their dream is to keep things pretty much just like they are, each parasitic corporation taking just a bit from as many people as possible not only keeps them flying under the radar, but able to claim that none of us would like to do without them. Each round of government subsidy in turn leads to new avenues to increase profitability. The banks we bailed out are racking up record profits, while more than 100,000 families per month are losing their homes. Many of the folks who used to feel secure are becoming more and more desperate, but the debate is about how great it is that at least the banks are profitable. Imagine ending It's A Wonderful Life with everyone sending their bail-out money to Potter. In our way, that is exactly what we have done! Those who deemed themselves "too big to fail" have us up against a wall. they are the ones with all the cards. their dreams have become nightmares for us all.
My dream includes the good of others. I can see a future in which all the things I have learned, being made both useful and valuable to others. better yet, this dream is unfolding at this very moment. Through the process of sharing some of my knowledge, the future is changing. As I "speak", seeds are planted, or the soils of future thought are tilled. I bear the water to quench the thirsty, knowledge hungry sprouts of a new, more civil society. i am here to sat that I know of at least one organic farm that produced 100% of last winter's spinach for a store in the northernmost part of Wisconsin. I felt blessed to have a chance to eat some of it because it blew away any other spinach I have ever eaten. corporate food enterprises have become too used to assigning value to the process of filling bags with commodities that can lead to generation of money, rather than capturing their produce when it is the healthiest and bringing it to market the same day.
If we are to turn the ship of state around, wresting power from those who have become most used to it, we will all need to pull together and in unison pull away from corporate domination and push off in a new direction. My dream is a wake up call, and I bid you all a good night sleep. when you wake up, i hope it will be invigorated and refreshed for the next big step in changing bussiness as ususal and taking back our state, our nation, our world.
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