I personally will never understand why farmers are not the highest paid people on the planet. Instead, we "value" entertainment above basic needs.
I always like to chat with the cashiers at the grocery store and upon buying liver, which she thought was gross, was actually stunned to find out where hamburger came from! Truth. I thought she was kidding, but in fact she is the product of our education system. I will admit leaving there feeling that this country is in big trouble if we have naive people, maybe no fault of her own, as the next generation of thinkers and leaders who actually prefer the artificial, in many aspects, to the real. Just my thoughts.
People who profit from financial transactions are the highest paid people on the planet, and they put themselves between farmers and people who eat food.
The money is in Intermediation, not production or consumption.
Love the message, not sure about the presentation. I have been told by a friend who grew up in Illinois that I, a native of NYC, have a romantic notion of farming. She used to work for the Dept. of Agriculture, in DC, doling out loans and grants, while a cousin wrung corn and soybeans for her on the family farm in the Midwest; she approaches farming as people in NYC approach fashion, not as a high calling but as a way to make money, as much as possible, as quickly and easiily as possible. So I'm not impressed by Iroquois prayers to corn gods anymore; if the main God isn't going to help feed the people, I'm not betting on subsidiaries. This Wordsworthian approach to agriculture strikes me, however, as a balanced reaction to the alternative, which is to view those who put food in our mouths as ignorant peasants, the lowest level of society, subject to the worst abuse from their "betters" (read any decent English novel before Thomas Hardy). The modern equivalent, in the USA, is the scorn that, among a certain group of women now, approaches hatred of the rural, of John Deere caps, pickup trucks, the smell of manure, country music, and, most of all, the "uneducated" MAGA people enjoying these things. Can't we take emotion out of these discussions entirely and simply present facts? The agricultural industry will soon be as concentrated as the automobile industry was and we see the results of that, our land will be owned by foreigners, the technology that has given us general obesity, ubiquitous auto-immunity diseases and cancer spikes will be ramped up to drag more calories from the soil, and we Americans will have lost yet more control over our destiny. The real lesson we should learn from the Iroquois is: When foreigners come for your land, beat the crap out of them.
We would love for John to be a guest speaker on our podcast "Make 100 Health Club". We raise money to help a local organic farmer. Can I have his email address so we can reach out? We live in Northern Arizona 90 miles north of Phoenix. https://cast11.com/living-a-good-life-lifestyle-podcast-2/
I personally will never understand why farmers are not the highest paid people on the planet. Instead, we "value" entertainment above basic needs.
I always like to chat with the cashiers at the grocery store and upon buying liver, which she thought was gross, was actually stunned to find out where hamburger came from! Truth. I thought she was kidding, but in fact she is the product of our education system. I will admit leaving there feeling that this country is in big trouble if we have naive people, maybe no fault of her own, as the next generation of thinkers and leaders who actually prefer the artificial, in many aspects, to the real. Just my thoughts.
People who profit from financial transactions are the highest paid people on the planet, and they put themselves between farmers and people who eat food.
The money is in Intermediation, not production or consumption.
;-(
Unfortunately many family farmers have bought into big AG and farm just like big AG with chemicals and grain fed animals.
Love the message, not sure about the presentation. I have been told by a friend who grew up in Illinois that I, a native of NYC, have a romantic notion of farming. She used to work for the Dept. of Agriculture, in DC, doling out loans and grants, while a cousin wrung corn and soybeans for her on the family farm in the Midwest; she approaches farming as people in NYC approach fashion, not as a high calling but as a way to make money, as much as possible, as quickly and easiily as possible. So I'm not impressed by Iroquois prayers to corn gods anymore; if the main God isn't going to help feed the people, I'm not betting on subsidiaries. This Wordsworthian approach to agriculture strikes me, however, as a balanced reaction to the alternative, which is to view those who put food in our mouths as ignorant peasants, the lowest level of society, subject to the worst abuse from their "betters" (read any decent English novel before Thomas Hardy). The modern equivalent, in the USA, is the scorn that, among a certain group of women now, approaches hatred of the rural, of John Deere caps, pickup trucks, the smell of manure, country music, and, most of all, the "uneducated" MAGA people enjoying these things. Can't we take emotion out of these discussions entirely and simply present facts? The agricultural industry will soon be as concentrated as the automobile industry was and we see the results of that, our land will be owned by foreigners, the technology that has given us general obesity, ubiquitous auto-immunity diseases and cancer spikes will be ramped up to drag more calories from the soil, and we Americans will have lost yet more control over our destiny. The real lesson we should learn from the Iroquois is: When foreigners come for your land, beat the crap out of them.
Great work, John. Just bought my copy from Amazon.
Hellava rutabaga!
"Call Any Vegetable", with Zappa shout out to Rutabaga at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ef4K0sfDk
We would love for John to be a guest speaker on our podcast "Make 100 Health Club". We raise money to help a local organic farmer. Can I have his email address so we can reach out? We live in Northern Arizona 90 miles north of Phoenix. https://cast11.com/living-a-good-life-lifestyle-podcast-2/