It has been awhile since I have been over to the ATTRA website, but yesterday evening I was looking for some information on their site and I came across the video below. It was created for the Montana Governor’s Summit on Food and was pretty interesting. It is about 10 minutes long and I would say that it is well worth the time … if nothing else, but to make you think. Watch it if you get a chance and the let me know what you think. Tomorrow I will throw out some of my thoughts and observations.
That’s a great video, Ethan. It very much illustrates how centralization and industrial ag production is failing us. One one hand, you have ag industrialists who have to struggle to stay in business with farms in the thousands of acres, and poor people who can’t afford the price of food. Obviously, the only folks making money in this scenario are the food shippers and the guys selling fertilizer and equipment.
As individuals, we may not be able to impact the nation, but we can definitely raise awareness in our local communities that there is still good, local food, and maybe a way to generate enough income off a farm to get young people interested.
Did you notice the dates mentioned in the video? Everything changed for the farmers in the 1950’s, just when farmers were buying into the industrial production model. We learned so much about shipping food over distance, first to England to support them, then to our troops overseas that it became the “way to do things”. Now, no one knows how to slaughter a hog. Not many people know what “real” eggs taste like (I even had a person complain that farm-raised eggs were “too eggy-tasting”). And canning food is almost a lost art.
The good news here is that Americans are innovative..always looking for something that isn’t being done…and it turns out that growing local food is one of those things. Heck, that there’s even a video like this in existance is a good sign. We’ll see.
-Dave
My wife and I were sitting at our kitchen table discussing how we are striving to be able to grow our own food. And then I saw the video you posted. Montana, B.C., the same process. The system is twisted, has been for a long time, and I don’t believe it will change. Until it changes.
I am off to the garden to plant a few more turnips and beets. The tomatoes went in yesterday. God willing I will have enough to share with friends this fall. Get them “hooked” on from the dirt carrots.
Dave’s comment about ” too eggy-tasting” farm raised eggs had us rolling on the floor. –As we enjoyed our very eggy-tasting eggs.