The video “Food, Inc” below might make you hungry for real food, but you may not have access to any if Corporate Farming has anything to say about it.
Is anyone else concerned the big corporations that control the Corporate Farming Industry might try and shut down the small food producers sort of like what Big Tech just did to speech they don’t approve of? I am and I bet others are, as well.
Perhaps some farmers at TBP have time to see the video and offer their own insights on the issue of corporate farming and the food rights of those who don’t realize what they are really eating, much less how to grow and process any of it on their own. At what point will those in power make the same mistakes the Soviets made with their farmers and peasants?
I grew up on a small family farm in the bootheel of Southeast Missouri where we raised a few cows, some for eating and others for breeding and one for milking. I traveled down that way last spring, where my mother resides on the farm now rented to a neighboring farmer with big equipment with big subsidies. There are no cows there now, not anywhere. The farms are enormous now, with most of the small family farm homes gone, allowing more cropland to be planted in vast expanses of green soybeans and golden corn. There are also huge rice fields, with the required irrigation equipment to flood fields the federal government once paid to have drained. It is obvious that if you intend to make a living farming the alluvial farmland now, you will need to raise some serious money for the equipment and you must already own the land. That farmland really can’t be bought except through private sales with a lot of money. The kind of money Bill and Melinda Gates have, for instance.
The farms around us out here in the Ozarks are smaller, usually less than a hundred acres, enough to raise a few cattle to sell at local auctions and grow the hay to feed them. The rancher who cuts and bales our hay each year raises Texas longhorn cattle for rodeo purposes as well as raising beef cattle, which is why he has the large equipment necessary to cut and bale 30+acres of our land.
The local auction is in Patton and draws quite a crowd in the early spring. The feeder steers are showing up in pastures around the area, bright tags clipped to one ear in lieu of branding. We have purchased beef from two of our ranching neighbors, both grass and pasture fed and had it butchered locally.
It is a blessing to have honest farmers nearby and on this forum. I take back anything snarky I ever said. This video has made me realize I need to get serious about my own garden this year. I bet it makes a few others think about their own food security, as well.
Food Inc. lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing how our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers, and our own environment. Food Inc. reveals surprising – and often shocking – truths about what we eat, how it’s produced, and who we have become as a nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGrpgPQFU3A
Control the food supply you can control the people. Not sure the quality of food being produced by factory farming can even considered ‘food’. Commercial food is bland, watery and nearly devoid of nutrients, by design. Program people to think the highly processed rubbish food, and in excess, is good for them. Creates obese lethargic people who only look to the next meal.
We raised cows, hogs, chickens and produce on our small farm organically even before ‘organic’ became a thing. There were actually some people who didn’t like our products because they were to ‘gamey’, seriously. The only thing we ever bought that wasn’t organic was layer pellets to keep the chickens laying eggs, everything else was corn/barley/cracked wheat mix and local produce culls from farms around the area for the hogs. Sure miss those days and the produce.
For us conservatives it will be imperative to get to know a local farmer. Learn to barter and trade. Stay small, stay local will mean a stable food supply of a much better quality. Grow what you can, even a small balcony garden is better than nothing. Many communities will allow a couple chickens in your back yard which helps for pest control, meat and eggs. If smart there is a lot you can do under the radar.
I am lucky to live close to real produce farms, family owned.
Bill Gates is now the largest farm land owner in the United States. If that doesn’t scare you, you haven’t been paying attention.
The same guy who wants us all vaccinated is teaming with Monsanto.
Nothing good comes of that.
‘The same guy…..teaming with Monsanto’……..haha.
Enjoyed your post, and took advantage to rewatch this video. It had been so long, I had forgotten some of it, chasing those unseen rabbits down their deep little holes.
Here’s what the Emperor thought about those ‘innovators’ like Monsatanhole:
Just doing his part to help out? I wonder if Dementia Joe will EO this away?
What Monsatanhole did with the genetic modification and patenting is the same thing planned for the human…….mRNA
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—-===
I also wonder how the raising of Osiris Ceremony went this past inauguration ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTpEC66z1mg&feature=emb_logo
I've worked a lot of different jobs, Maggie. In the latter half of the 70's I worked in a packing house that slaughtered around 500 beef and 2500 hogs a day…. ran a ban saw that fed a pork loin-boning crew…..during a time when the company (John Morrell) was trying to break the union (AFLCIO), a couple of wildcat strikes. Haha, I was fired seven times in eleven month in '79. Lotta stories from those 3 yrs….
You an Upton Sinclair reader? If not, no problem.
fascinating video about the freemasonry angle…
I think we are going to see some real horror stories in the days and months ahead.
Folks need to watch this video and get serious about their food production.
This year I plan on going to the locals to set up supply chains.
http://www.localharvest.org
And they’re lining the southern US border to come work those farms.
Exactly. It dumps new voters in red rural regions a new kind of peasant.
While mamacita and the ninos get on welfare and medicaid. Xiden will make it a priority to take care of those who come here looking for a handout.
They’re coming for all of the free $tuff … work isn’t on their list of priorities …
I think they are actually being bused here. If you watch the video, you will discover the food lobby has special privileges to bring in migrant workers. They pretty much have special privileges for a lot of shit.
The inheritance tax has probably been the biggest destroyer of family farms. Owners pass away, leaves a few hundred acres to the children. IRS says you owe this much for the land. Children have to sell, corporate buyers standing by.
There needs to be instructions for farmers to form S-Corporations or LLCs (no secondary taxation like C-Corps.), and declare their children officers/directors of the company. All it takes is a minute book (examples available online) and a small county fee and now there is no inheritance tax, the company becomes the continuous entity. Revenue paid to company employees, and it can endure indefinitely.
Yup…..;)
The fact that the government can tax you into giving up your land should have conservatives screaming loud and long. But typical the fake conservatives are complicit in the stealing of lands to enrich themselves. To bad tar and feathering went out of style… perhaps needs to see a resurgence.
Some deserve ropes and lampposts.
Doesn’t that make them a corporate farm and subject to that negative label?
You can also set it up as a family trust. Talk to attorneys that do this stuff.
See below for more info; “Abolish Rights of Inheritance” is number three of the Ten Planks of Communism. This is NO accident, because it undermines the accrual of “independent” (generational) wealth.
It is also morally despicable.
I wonder how much government farm subsidies Bill & Melinda will get this year? Probably not as much as Monsanto, but he is still growing his little farming operation.
TN Patriot? Did you watch the video? I found the part where all the products containing some form of corn or soybeans horrifying. How come so many of our food products (and batteries?) contain corn in some other form. No wonder Americans are so fat… everybody is “cornfed” and didn’t know it.
Now, pair that information about human food containing corn byproducts with the fact that corn digestion in cattle causes e.coli outbreaks. Joel Salatin discusses how just five days of eating grass will clear most of the e.coli from the cattle.
But they don’t do that because they feed the cattle corn because it is cheaper and makes them fat fast.
It’s insane. Ours are grassfed out here with a grain finish if requested.
Thank God.
Now, I’m off to talk to a guy about getting one of his pigs up to the butcher block.
Sorry, Maggie, I did not watch the video, but am quite aware of some of the antics of corporate farming. HFCS is one of the worst things to happen to our food. It is included in way too much of out diet and certainly has added to the obesity problem in America. The calories have to come from somewhere and HFSC is a cheap source of calories and a big contributor to obesity.
Using massive amounts of energy and water to create “fuel” out of corn is a terrible waste of a food product, energy, precious water and agricultural resources. If Iowa did not have the “first in the nation” selection process, ethanol would have been dropped as a fuel source many years ago.
Not only did the acreage of food production go down from the lose of growing corn for fuel but the ethanol also makes the gas less efficient. I have relatives in Saskatchewan that grow bird seed because its more profitable than food stuffs. The odd years they grow lentils but not often. They don’t even raise their own livestock anymore… to much work. Now everything is done with gps guided tractors and everything is optimized for maximum yields.
They used to buy canola gmo (rape seed) but it was a huge pain in the hiney. Once it contaminates a field its tough to get rid of, and all along the rail tracks its fully contaminated with gmo products that are resistant to weed killer. Monsanto even went after some farmers in Saskatchewan for having gmo canola in their fields even tho the farmer never has bought or planted any gmo. Monsanto uses lawfare here to put farmers out of their farms or force them to grow what they want, buying their seed. They know family farmers don’t have a lot of money to defend themselves and will fold pretty quick. Its no surprise that the evil gates and monsanto are teaming up.
I’ve heard that once the soil has been treated with Monsanto chemicals, other seed won’t germinate very well. Monsanto has a “kill gene” in their crap, don’t they?
I’ve heard that but can’t substantiate it. I do know that as a kid on the farm the soil was black as spades. Today its grey. Its been depleted and chemical bombarded for decades now which could affect germination too. Monsanto reps drive the countryside around N Battleford area looking for farmers that are saving seed. a no no.
I’m going to see if I can find information about the “kill gene”…
“Can genetic engineering be used to kill pests like mosquitoes, fruit flies, and rats? originally appeared on Quora: the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Jane Chin, President of the Medical Science Liaison Institute; Founder of LinkedIn’s Alternative Ph.D Careers group, on Quora:
“Yes, we can.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/06/16/we-can-use-genetic-engineering-to-kill-pests-but-should-we/?sh=27b4399e282a
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/1999/jun/01/gmcrops
Seed used to be held back by the farmers but when the Dow Chemical came along promising increased yields and less weeds many bought into it. This, imo, opened the door for the propaganda by chemical companies to create a dependency on their chemicals or other solutions.
My uncle stated often that yes yields increased but so did the weeds. Which the chemical companies would respond with the obvious chemical to ‘control’ the weeds. Which oddly enough you needed more fertilizer to maintain yields and more chemical weed killers because plants adapted resistance to the chemicals.
So the soil, over decades have gone from rich black biotic rich to bleached out nutrient poor in need of ever more chemicals to grow product. The end result is chemical companies like Dow, Monsanto, Dupont, have made the farmers dependent on their companies like addled drug addicts and to ensure they stay addicted, hire ‘investigators’ to rove the land for those farmers not buying their rubbish and punish them with lawfare.
Quality is the last thing they care about.
Ghost, you make the “leap” that what the Soviets did to Ukraine (the holodomor) was an accident; I think it was a feature.
The Ten Planks of Communism:
?cb=1260150790
7-9 address agriculture/means of production BY THE STATE.
Since we live is a fascist (rule by corporation) state, I would argue that Monsanto is the agriculture branch of the government.
For more explanation, see also:
http://www.laissez-fairerepublic.com/TenPlanks.html
That said, YES, everybody, GROW AS MUCH FOOD AS YOU CAN. Communists have used food as a weapon not only in Russia but also China (and elsewhere I am sure*), as many as 45 million:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/mao-s-great-leap-forward-killed-45-million-four-years-2081630.html
*wikipedia has a list, but, hey, it’s . . . wikipedia, so:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes
Good to see you back, Ghost!
I found an amazing Chomsky video and submitted it for posting which goes right along with your comment.
Thanks.
In hindsight this makes you look exceptionally clever now, niebo.
There is a sort of nostalgia for the days of the subsistence farm here in the US. Our subsistence farmers owned their land, that is what really set them apart from the European peasants. They had the chance to improve their land, buy out their neighbors, grow…. and some sure did. Others found subsistence farming to be a damned tough living. They moved on, got a job at Fords or US Steel, trading fresh air and mule kicks for a steady paycheck. Those subsistence farmers were cash and energy poor. Hand pumps, outhouses, woodstove heat, wondering where to get the money for Juniors new britches or a tire for the farm truck. Not nearly as romantic at the time as it might seem in retrospect to people who never lived it. I knew a few of those old guys. They recounted it fondly, but noted (to a man) how damned poor they had been, and how they did not miss that poverty at all.
The sort of 100 acres (even 40 acres of good dirt were enough) and a dirty-shirt subsistence farmer in the not so US are gone, and have been for a long time. HSF notwithstanding, the system does not allow for any way to really make that work for all but the very tiny number of dedicated freaks (and I mean that nicely) who get written about in bespoke magazines. In fact, those are hobby farms, for the most part. They do not supply commercially viable quantities of anything. Great taste, great people, love ’em to death, but they don’t fill trucks, let alone railcars, barges, or ships.
As much as I hate to say it, and this may come to pass sooner rather than later, small time farming as anything but a great boutique hobby won’t make any sense until there is a few billion less people on earth. Then it will fit (again) into the natural rhythm of things.
I just chopped up a jar of Roma tomatoes canned last fall, added some garlic and salt and poured the whole mess over some homemade pasta and a few chunks of chicken we raised ourselves.
But, shhhh…. don’t tell. They’ll banish us, you know.
Sons of farmers from the Bootheel were numerous in Starksville back in the early ’70s. I became friends w/ one from Caruthersville and asked him why he was at State rather than Mizzou. “I don’t want to go to college with Yankees from St Louis.”
I completely understand. I went to Rolla from the Bootheel from high school and realized I didn’t even speak the same language as the folks from the city.
It’s funny you say that. I’ve been binge listening to Cryptid Brothers out of OK the last few days. They had a guy on from Pennsylvania or somewhere over there (live in Montana) and could barely understand them. Same with some English movies. Weird.
Do not eat grocery store meat. That is all.
That is a good rule.
Fantastic article, Maggie. I have to get serious with my garden as well.
I need to start cleaning my own seed and am thanking my lucky stars this land was never farmed… just a few cattle and horses.
Watched this years ago… then I swore off chicken…… today I eat very very little chicken. after years of not eating it, now when I do have a small portion, I can taste all the chemicals that are in the chicken. completely saturated taste at times. the growth hormones in the factory chickens are intense.
When I was a kid I remember watching a documentary from a south American country, (Brazil maybe) and they were showing the parents of 10 year old girls who were entering puberty way too early with full developed breasts. (this was 40 years ago) and they were giving the warnings way back then about growth hormones in food.
Today I have been buying all my meat from farmers, 1/2 cow at a time and a complete hog, plus a lamb every 6 months. I just refuse to to poison my body with hormone induced meats.
cheers
We used to raise meat birds as well, Cornish Giants. The trucker that delivered grain I bought for feed, stated the chicken farm next to the feed despot had a six week turn-over. He said numerous times you could almost see them grow. They grew Cornish Giants and also said they lost large amounts of birds to mostly heart attacks and bone breaks. They simply outgrow their organs and bones.
We grew the same birds but free ranged and NO commercial feeds. We would lose about 5 birds per one hundred. and they could fly and very tasty. Sure miss that. Same with our hogs and beef, no commercial feeds.