Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
Every time I post a link to anything that isn’t familiar to people, which is pretty much every time I post a link, a certain subset gets rankled by something- the arrogance of a differing opinion or belief? Who knows. Yesterday it was the Pasteur’s final words, “The terrain is everything” and his belief that germ theory was- at best- incomplete.
The failure to take in the overall hearth of the organism in a world filled with pathogens was not only problematic, it was foundational to any further study. It has been my experience since dramatically altering our own lives that the single most important factor in maintaining health and vigor not only in crops, flocks and herds, but in families is to look to the underlying principles of good health and well-being.
Eat fresh, locally grown foods in season and only in quantities necessary to satiate hunger rather than to gorge. Drink plenty of water, untreated, right out of the ground. Sleep well and for as long as the body requires. Avoid stress by listening to the inner voice that tells you when you are doing something wrong through anxiety rather than to take pharmaceuticals to suppress those feelings. Work with the entirety of your body, mind and soul at whatever you do rather than to specialize.
Seek harmony in your environment through simplicity. Build real community by practicing mutually benevolent exchanges of labor, goods and services rather than treating every human interaction as some form of economic exchange. Tell the truth as you know it and always seek to find it in whatever endeavor or train of thought you undertake regardless of where it leads. Those kinds of things.
In the article there was a pitch for raw milk by whoever authored the piece. I have consumed raw milk plenty of times and never once had an adverse reaction to it, but that is of course anecdotal and not everyone has either the taste for, nor access to it in the post-modern Big Ag era of food production. YMMV, as always.
So, in good conscience I decided to research further the sources of food borne sickness that many of the critics insinuated were the direct result of my posting that link by going to the world’s leading authority on what constitutes good food and a nourishing diet for all Americans, the FDA. They maintain a page on their website that is- unlike most Fed Gov operations- updated daily with active warnings of foodborne pathogens, contaminated batches, various reports of metal scraps, etc.
177 pages of it.
Guess how many were from small local family farms?
I’ll let you figure it out.
Cheers.
https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Really great advice. Live simply; live healthy. I have a small homestead and although we can only supplement what we need to buy with a garden, with chickens, and with a small apiary, it helps.
My grandmother strained the milk through a “tea towel”, then skimmed the cream to make butter. When they had cows, that was the only pasteurization they ever had in their milk.
A lot of the old timers would put a Silver Dollar in the milk pail. Silver is, as most here know, a natural disinfectant.
We hosted an ice cream church social when I was a kid and discovered the Jersey had been in the wild onions.
Now, it would be trendy.
Now that there is funny, I don’t care who you are. 🙂
I was sorta embarrassed, but it was very creamy and we just added lots of chocolate sauce.
It became a legend in the church community… when there was a dinner, the preacher would ask for anyone but my mother to bring the ice cream. LOL…
We also played baseball in our field several times and used dried cowpies as bases.
Mags- We threw dried cow pies like frizbees long before the toy disks were invented in plastic. I’m so old, I predate plastics.
Solid advice, and it sounds like you were aware of its validity years ago when you positioned your family as you have.
As far as the FDA, or any government agency for that matter, I fail to attribute professional work ethics to determine outcome. On food recalls, I have always been suspect that ‘recall’ really means ‘redirect’…..the due diligence of dot gov to save for a rainy day.
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—–=== 'when our founders declared a new order for the ages, they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled' Shrub Bush
Its really a no brainer. Anyone saying that eating home grown produce be it vegetable, dairy or meat is risky, likely has never raised any of it themselves.
I remember reading, eons ago now, that the Japanese people lived on average 80 plus years with more centenarians than most other civilizations, prior to the 40’s. Cancers were very few and far between and obesity was also a rare sight.
After WW2 and the introduction of ‘processed’ foods into their food chain, cancers rose, life expectancies dropped and obesity began to rise. Todays rates of cancers are no different from N America and there are far fewer centenarians. People eat more packaged foods, do less work outside and jam up in stressful environments like cities more than ever. Japan has become the country of vending machines and the populace is showing the results of this life style change.
When our kids were young we farmed. Grew our own veggies, meats and bought raw milk from a friend with a jersey. They had farm chores to do, rode the hogs and played with the sheep for fun. Dirt was not to be feared but worked in, it strengthens your immune system.
The government and ‘marketing boards’ do one thing and thats fear monger. As a farmer you are considered to stupid to know how many chickens your property can maintain, or cattle can graze, how many hogs can be supported. You are told that your processing chickens in the back yard is dangerously unsanitary and will kill people. That you should be thankful that some pencil pusher is looking out for you and your customers.
Oddly not one person died or got sick from eating any of our products, and we survived. We never once ‘recalled’ any of our products due to contamination of any sort. We drank raw milk, did not refrigerate our eggs and ate very tasty meat products as well.
Healthy living is multifaceted. If you eat well, work, get outdoors and learn to listen, then it will be well with you, body, soul and hopefully spiritually too.
Would you mind adding if that would also be unreservedly true for non-home grown stuff – you know for the few non-farmers within our ranks?
Before I moved to rural NH, I lived in NYC and had a small but bountiful garden. I didn’t use fertilizer and composted as much as I could and had wonderful black soil and many hundreds of earthworms in that small plot. I had to rely on supermarket meats and dairy, but honestly believe that my produce made up for the lack of natural nutrients. I pressure canned my surplus that was usually enough to tide me through the winter. Fresh produce tastes better than store bought – every time. Thankfully I had a an area in my backyard to do this. I had friends that farmed in 5 gallon buckets. In fact I just had strawberries this morning from plants that are growing in containers in my sun room windows and will have broccoli tonight. I brought them in just a few weeks ago (it was 18 degrees this morning). You have no excuse – learn. With food shortages coming, it might prove to be a very wise thing to take up.
The REAL Doc
I miss my old home, raised in the granite state, can’t wait to return after years in the deep south.
The Massholes are moving north and bringing their liberal crap with them.
Have been for many years. My old man made the leap to Maine, same thing there , massholes every weekend
I just brought in the last few tomatoes and zucchinis for this year, which surprised me this late in the season in MA.
On the drive to the town leaf dump, I saw a sign next to a huge field “free eggplants, pick your own”. I am telling you, that field is humongous and full of ripe eggplants, none of which have been harvested for whatever reason. I expect it to be plowed under next week, so the farmer is giving people a chance to harvest some of it.
I stopped and picked about 20lbs of eggplants. Will make some eggplant parmesan and Baingan Bartha and freeze it tomorrow. Other than me, there was only an older lady picking. I guess the food shortages are not bad enough.. yet.
Only every 30th or so plant was not rotting, given that we had frost here and eggplant prefer warmer weather, but I felt like it was almost a sin to let perfectly good food go to waste, so I was happy to have rescued some of it.
What is it that makes this farmer plant and then not harvest? Subsidies? No idea, but the neighboring field was the same way last year, never harvested and then plowed in November.
Not harvested crops can be for a lot of reasons. Lack of picking crew, buyers don’t want the product, lack of means to get it to market, to name a few. Glad to hear he was encouraging those that wanted some to come get it.
I actually ran into this problem a couple times. Customers ordered product then backed out later. I offered mainly family and friends first dibs at my cost on free ranged chickens which worked out to about half what crappy commercial chicken was selling for in the store. The caveat, they’d have to come help process the birds. Not one person was willing… not one. If I cleaned, bagged, froze and delivered, they’d take some off my hands… I tell yah my freezer was stuffed about as full of chicken as you could get it… Even bought another freezer for the veggies and berries.
So true about the taste. A store bought tomato or eggs at an IHOP are almost tasteless to me after raising/canning/growing my own for years.
You can almost taste the health benefits in each meal.
Speaking of longevity of the Japanese and limiting food intake: I lived in Fukuoka for 4 months in 2001, and while I did not pick up more than a few words and signs, I remember that they have a saying that goes something like: “eat only to 80%”. Meaning, not to eat so much as to feel full, but just enough to have your hunger satisfied and then just a tad more.
Whereas here in the United States, we say the same thing.
But it means: EAT until your BMI is 80%!!!
Which advice, as we can all see, a huge portion of the country has taken to heart with great enthusiasm.
The FDA is there to protect big business, not the consumer. It is the same with every so-called regulatory agency. We should count our blessings that these numbers aren’t higher.
If folks didn’t know that before they should now. This Covid fraud has put windows on the sausage factory.
The way we eat here is so different from most places I’ve been. We can eat however we want, mind you, but the opportunity to eat locally here is abundant. There are at least two to three ‘roadside’ aka ‘direct from the farm’ food stands within walking distance of my house in town. The food is seasonal (naturally) and that’s how we’ve eaten (in general) for years. Even our meat is local (farmed inside of 100 to 200 miles of the house). It’s even fresher if I kill something in the spring or fall while hunting. Now that I think about it I haven’t bought eggs from a grocery store in 12 years either. They come straight from the farm too. Even our cheese is local. The place that makes it is a ten minute walk from my doorstep as well.
As for eating ‘in season’ I refuse to give up oranges at any time of year. It’s a hill I’m willing to die on, frankly, and they’re not local. Not by a long shot. Same with nuts. Aside from that, pretty much everything else is except for our summer watermelons.
Our kids have always eaten this way and I maintain it is (in part) why they did so well in school and athletics. A good diet is paramount to healthy development.
Abundant local food production will save our asses here in the coming months and years. If it wasn’t for our communist government this place would paradise.
Couldn’t agree more… Same for here in the s Okanagan
Don’t tell anybody. I recall an Eagles song something about if they call it Paradise you can “kiss it goodbye.” They were talking about Colorado pre Prog invasion.
I’m a veterinarian, as such, I’ve been to many meat processing facilities. I’ve also seen firsthand the way other packaged foods are processed. If you want a reason to grow your own crops and butcher your own meat, take a day trip to one of these operations.
That and the crap they pump into them at the big corporate feedlots.
It was some time ago, but I think this video was posted here a couple years ago.
A few years back I took a Serve-Safe course on food handling. The instructor said the course was for “the food service industry” and didn’t understand why a farmer would take it. I tried to explain that a lot of food actually comes from farms, so there’s that. They seemed puzzled, like they couldn’t make the connection.
The information was pretty basic-time and temperature controls, sanitation, contamination, etc. Some of the details were informative and helpful, but most of it was common sense like wash your hands after you use the toilet. They really leaned on only buying from “trusted suppliers” meaning Sysco Systems, US Foods, etc. They were insistent that purchasing from small local producers was extremely risky and should be discouraged because they did not have the sophisticated processes and training that goes into proper food production. I pointed out that the last 100 recalls in a row by the USDA were from “trusted suppliers” but they stuck to their guns.
There is a mindset in America that anything from a large company is inherently safer than anything from a small farmer despite the lack of evidence to back that up.
I wish people would get more interested in the source of their sustenance and if they don’t try and grow or raise it themselves, find small farmers who still practice regenerative agriculture and buy direct.
Win/win.
I’ve also taken and been certified Serv-Safe. And I’ve been, many times, on premises where Serv-Safe practices were to be followed. Even in cases where a USDA inspector was on-site they were not followed to the letter.
“I tried to explain that alot of food actually comes from farms…” The irony..it burns, it burns!!
I was raised on a half acre kitchen garden, wild game, wild berries and local meat. How I ever survived I’ll never know.
My work puts me in the middle of your typical residential apartment kitchen about 6-12 times a day. Yup, the kitchens that everybody uses in their homes. Where they process the food they buy from the grocery store. Up close and personal.
Everyone is gone to school and work, and the mayonnaise has been left out. Meat is carelessly left in the sink with dirty dishes to thaw. Leftovers (too much to be thrown out) are just sitting in pans on the stove. Cockroaches and flies have free rein. And every surface is covered with grease, grime, and filth. But nobody is walking around with shigella, ptomaine, or any of that crap.
People, in their day-to-day lives, are just foul. My own parents, (God bless them) use bar soap, but I have yet to ever see the soap bar or soap dish wet. (WTF?) We are so overwhelmingly resistant to microbes that it boggles the mind. (I often don’t wash my hands after a piss, on the assumption that my junk is probably cleaner than my hands…sorry…TMI…but you are the same way in certain things and you know it!)
But farmers have to throw out products because there is no gov’t inspector to certify them. Health Departments are giving proctology exams to restaurants with chefs who loooove food and live by customer reviews, when, at the same time, those f’n inspectors don’t check the temps on their own fridge at home, let alone cover the food in the fridge.
I’m guessin’ that when gov’t goes away, we’ll be just fine.
Only problem we’ll face is what to do with all the useless fx who will be standing around whining.
I won’t say I think that way, but way too often will be working on something like a car or other greasy, dirty object; just walk right in the house without washing my hands and eat a sandwich or whatever. Funny how your average female gets sick all the time, admonishes men for not being more careful, more sanitary. We grew up eating dirt, playing with frogs, bugs, you name it and men hardly ever get sick. I will admit however, when we do, at least when I do, I turn into a baby.
This was my first year raising a bed of carrots… I’m particularly proud of this one!
No fertilizer, just lots of good soil composted by bunnies and earthworms.
I just cast mine and let them go all summer. I was afraid they would be no good, but my wife picked them and a lot looked like that, but they were all delicious.
It has been fun. And tasty!
“a certain subset gets rankled by something”
Cognitive disonance is painful and uncomfortable, leading to an attack on whoever or whatever caused it. Egos are fragile, but a teachable spirit is not afraid of considering different points of view. As we grow and learn we my find that we were given the wrong information at some point, and if we refrain from an emotional response we can benefit from admitting that we believed something that was not true.
Many believe that they have a corner on the truth, especially if they have invested a lot of time researching a particular subject, even more so if it involves a religious topic. One can become emotionally attached to their particular truth. This emotional attachment overrides rational thought and logic. This is why some folks display such bad behavior if you challenge any of their beliefs, they react based on emotion instead of respond as a result of thinking things through.
For genuine truth seekers, truth itself is the highest goal. It’s the same with genuine scientists, who continue to experiment and test what is considered to be proven just in case something has been overlooked or left out. Emotionally clinging to a belief causes one to be stuck and unable to move forward towards better horizons.
“Cognitive disonance is painful and uncomfortable, leading to an attack on whoever or whatever caused it.”
Sometimes a physically violent attack…
Your comment sums it up well.
So you sayin that twinkies, coke, doritos, and handfuls of meds washed down with koolaid aint good for us???
Man, that is so hateful.
As long as you take a multivitamin, you should be just fine!
Depends on how old you are Ghosty. If you are over 70 you will most likely only absorb 5% of the vitamins and minerals.Age 50 to 70 maybe 15% if you are lucky.
Whole Foods carried raw milk for some time and it was very popular where I live in the city. The deposit on the glass bottle was $4 which was more than the half gallon of milk cost. It stayed sold out and I don’t believe I ever heard of anyone dying from it’s consumption. On the whole, Whole Foods is a fraud as the products are the same crap produced by Kellogg, Post etc. with different labels passed off as organic or natural with a higher price tag.
The outrage over raw milk nudged WF to phase it out, the crazy people won . If you only knew how unhealthy milk becomes when heated to ultra high heat, I don’t buy it. (you couldn’t give it to me for free)
Check out Weston Price for some solid info regarding processed food.
Food in America is pretty safe…unfortunately, it is far less nutritious than food decades ago..The Scientific American once had an article pointing this out, which was rapidly squelched…
Love the positive spin on health. A refreshing read!
Love the positive spin on health. A refreshing read!
I eat whole foods(I include meat in that). I haven’t eaten fast food in at least a year. The shit people put in there mouths. Try some whole raw nuts or fresh fruits instead reaching for the cheese puffs. Use natural honey for sweetening. Cut out the carb bombs everyday. Stay way from processed foods(most things in a carboard box or a wrapper). Have some fresh fish. Try a good bourbon instead of six pack of beer(Not always, exceptions must be made), Just start doing it and in a week or two you will reap the rewards. In a month or two you will feel like a completely different person.
Sometimes forgetting to recollect can be a real cool hand. “…Making the wrong move at the right time.”
The bigger the population, the greater the supply need the more potential for problems.
I consume raw milk every day, but it is milk that contains the A2 protein and not the A1.
Go here to find out why:
My milk costs $11/gallon. Feels good to support the local farmer who raises the right cows and which cows see him as their friend.
Well done!!!