The power to feed oneself, one's family and one's neighbors is a power so guttural, so primal, that it germinates the seeds of fear within the heart of tyranny. by Ken D. Berry, MD
(libertarian)
Friday, June 19, 2009
Locavore(noun) An individual who chooses to either grow and create produce and goods personally, or to procure them locally from known and trusted sources, in order to help grow and stabilize the local micro-economy, and to ensure a dependable local source of these goods in order to protect against the potential loss of more distant sources. --my own definition.
Growing your own food and encouraging local food production is good self-reliance and a sure sign of wisdom. The pseudo-libertarian argument that one should buy the cheapest head of lettuce without second thought as to its origins is both simplistic on its surface and dangerous at its core. Self-preservation is the bedrock of all objective libertarian thought, with self-reliance and self-rule being its mortar and its forms. One cannot have self-rule without self-preservation, thus food and water must both be directly controlled and produced or one should have a backup plan for their procurement that does not include them riding in a truck from another state or country. Without this most basic level of preparation, all higher levels of learning and training are but folly. This is not to say that we must grow all our own food, but that we ought to be able to grow all our own food.
Many of us have grown up thinking produce comes from supermarkets. For decades this inane lifestyle was pseudo-sustainable and a generation grew up with no need of gardens or farms. During these same decades, a grossly over reaching federal government actually encouraged this lifestyle perhaps unintentionally by subsidizing such companies as DuPont, Cargill, ADM and Bunge, Ltd, and essentially paying smaller farmers NOT to grow crops. As all government encroachment is apt to do, this created a top-heavy agri-economy, without firm foundation, that now threatens collapse. Given the proper set of easily imaginable variables, this country could wake one morning to find nothing on the breakfast table.
To the pure libertarian who also happened to grow up thinking tomatoes came from the grocery, terms such as Buy American, Tennessee First or Buy Local seem horribly jingoistic and embarrassingly 19th century. Two oft-cited planks of such a pseudo-libertarian platform are that all goods should be bought as cheaply as possible irregardless of the circumstances; and, that corporations, no matter how multi-national, are honorable because of their profit motive. Now, back when a farmer's only real choice of how to grow your potatoes was whether to use chicken poop or cow poop as fertilizer, produce could be assumed safe. Today, farming outfits have at their disposal a myriad of chemicals, biochemicals, phytochemicals, and now genetic modification with which to rapidly ripen your Franken-food. There is no doubt that gross production has increased with the use of these substances and techniques, but what of quality, sustainability, soil depletion and nutrition? Is it possible that nutritional value is affected or that other dangers might arise from over application of certain chemicals?
Someone honestly thinking that modern agri-science is aware of every micronutrient in our foods and exactly how each works in our bodies, reminds me of the scientists of old who thought all of atomic structure was known the moment the electron, neutron, proton thing was put to bed I am convinced that there are micronutrients and synergisms between micronutrients that have escaped the notice of modern agri-science. Of course, the corporations and the government would have trouble admitting this.
Having spent time in several corporate cultures, and being in the process of creating one of my own, I can attest that things discussed at the conference table like plausible deniability, relative risk, and acceptable liability would never be heard over the dinner table. The larger and more multi-national a corporation gets, the less individuals can trust it to make good local decisions concerning individual people. There are widely documented cases of corporations crunching the numbers and then making decisions the average parent would never make about the food they were about to give their child. Figuratively, many leaders in corporate agri-business would never dine at the restaurant they work in So, why go to the trouble to seek out or grow your own food?
Gardening, or supporting local growers, encourages individual responsibility, enhances local relationships, and cements community associations. I am convinced that the redemption and rebirth of our Republic (should it be forthcoming at all) will begin at, and spread from the local level. Several easily verifiable and common sense reasons for supporting such Locavore activity would be:
1. Having a garden of any size will require one to spend less time in front of the television. This change alone could save our culture. Without the mind-numbing background blather, families might actually get to know and like each other.
2. There is copious evidence that the nutrients of any food decline quickly over time if not kept under ideal conditions. Broccoli straight from the garden has a taste and a nutritional value that is dream-like, a long truck-ride renders it sterile and impotent. Food that is more nutritious, better tasting and less expensive sounds worth the small effort of doing it yourself.
3. When you grow a garden, you are the CEO of your own agri-business and get to decide what kind of seeds to use, and what if any chemicals you will put on your food. Wait, this means you will actually know what has been done to the food your children will eat, isn't that comforting!
4. You will be sticking it to the M.N.C.'s !
5. You will be taking charge of your life! With enough of that sort of behavior, the true meaning of Liberty might reveal itself to you and yours.
6. Perhaps your garden will be grandfathered when the feds decide to regulate and tax personal gardens
7. You might inspire your neighbors to try this gardening thing, thus snow-balling the whole self-reliance, personal responsibility, Liberty thing. The power to feed oneself, one's family and one's neighbors is a power so guttural, so primal, that it germinates the seeds of fear within the heart of tyranny.
8. There are many places to get great ideas about gardening the smart (easy) way that requires no back-breaking labor. Great resources I have found worth every penny are here, here and here.
9. You and your family will be exercising without even knowing it; it is hard to garden from the lazy-boy...
10. And finally, you will be making your great-great grandparents, and your founding fathers and mothers quite proud.
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The views expressed
in this article are those of Ken D. Berry, MD only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Ken D. Berry, MD is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
The acceptance of incorporation by Psuedo or Royal Libertarians has always been befuddling. Corporations exist only due to special charter of the State and as such, gain immediate advantage [limited liability for one] in what is suppose to be a "free" marketplace. How that can be consonant with Libertarian ideals, I will never know!
We put our first garden in years this spring. Two raised beds and have enough lettuce to sell to Food City! Peas, green beans, broccoli have come in abundance. Awaiting zuchinni, tomatoes, carrots and, of course, pumkins!
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