A Slice of Rebellion

at the breakfast table yesterday.

"mum, did you know we can't drink milk straight from a cow?  it's bad for you!"

who sais that?

"it's what we are learning at school.  they have to do something to it to make it OK for us to drink."

well, hon.  mum and dad don't actually agree with that.  we think that raw, natural milk the way God created it is good for you.  <sigh> sometimes mum and dad won't agree with what the school teaches .... but that's ok .... it's about you learning and appreciating many different ways to look at things .... and on this one, mum and dad disagree with the government.  and rest assured ... if we lived on a farm and had a dairy cow .... we would drink raw milk.

blank look and open mouth from kiddo in question ..... 

(secretly i am smiling, btw ... had to come to this one day!)

oh my goodness!  what has happened to me!  i've been reading this book everything i want to do is illegal, by Joel Salatin (book review to come soon .... promise!)  and suddenly i find myself free, even LIBERATED to ask ....

why would the government know what is better for me and my family than i do?

woman!  what has happened to you!

ok ... first, the argument, then the big picture perspective.

why drink pasturised milk?  the government says,  that raw milk can harbour dangerous micro-organisms that can pose serious health risks to you and your family (off the US FDA web site).  so?  that's a pretty weak argument!  tell me there aren't a plethora of other risks that you and i take each day just by walking out the door.  good grief!

so why does the government pick on these?

it's because the Monsanto's, Nestle's and large multinationals of today have the poli's in their back pockets.  doesn't matter if they are labour or liberal, democrat or republic, greenie or whatever ..... the poli's do what the big guys tell them to do .... because they are out for one thing:  to line their own corporate pockets.

before you call me a negative nelly .... i dare you to tell me that fracking for natural gas is healthy and ok.  that having your drinking water catch on fire because of the gas content is ok .... and the reason it has that gas content is because of the leakage of natural gas from fracking.  good for you and me?  no.  good for the big guys?  oh yeah!  we need to find sustainable ways of enjoying this amazing world .... not destroying it simple to make the fat cats fatter!

and i won't even consider arguing with you until you have sat and seriously watched three movies.  Food, Inc., Fresh and Gasland.  you won't like them .... i certainly found them challenging .... but necessary for my families health.  don't you want that?

in his book, salatin makes a comment about the inability to enjoy raw milk.  he conjures an image of the "olden" days when you could have farm fresh cream butter or ice cream ... and the joy and delight that those products held.   they are raw .... natural .... hey .... THE WAY GOD INTENDED IT TO BE!

but that is not what the big corporates would have you believe.  they are the gods .... they determine what you and i eat, drink and enjoy .... and have us believing that it is in our best interest ..... all to line their own pockets!

.... my little slice of rebellion for the day.....

a state of nobility and sacredness

the dictionary defines nobility as

1. Possessing hereditary rank in a political system or social class derived from a feudalistic stage of a country's  
   development.
2.  a. Having or showing qualities of high moral character, such as courage, generosity, or honor: 
    b. Proceeding from or indicative of such a character; showing magnanimity:
3. Grand and stately in appearance; majestic


there is this farmer in Tennessee that i think i might have a crush on.  Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.  oh....don't take it wrong .... i just love the way this guy talks and what he is on about (psst .... hubby has a bit of a man crush too! <g>).  he wants us to be committed to the nobility in which we were all created.  to express the God ordained "humanness" that is intrinsic in how he made us .... because it is good. 


at the end of the day his challenge for us is to find our true nobility and sacredness -- and express that in all that we do.  for a Christian this call will ever draw us back to an appreciation of what our Lord has done for us. 


from an environmental evangelist perspective, it means that we acknowledge that our Divine Creator (or mother nature if you can't wrap your head around the God thing) made our world and made us to be caretakers of it.  He created this world for us and has put us in charge of it ... an amazing creation that is self-propagating, self regulating and provides all the best food and nourishment we, as those created in His image could ever need.  our challenge is not to move away from this sacredness, not to destroy it, but to reflect His glory and beauty in everything ... because it is how He ordained it.


mr salatin, because of his farming background, expresses that in some beautiful and at times quite humorous ways ....

• allowing a chicken to express it's "chicken-ness" (e.g. scratching and digging) brings out the nobility and beauty in what they are.
• a pork his "porky-ness" by rutting with his snout to dig up food
• that an essence of egg is a beautiful thing
• and in the end ... it means that in expressing our humanness, we are returning to the nobility of how God created us ... to the beauty of what He ordained for us.

it is a call away from the processed factory enhanced stuff that we allow ourselves to ingest.  we have been allowed to think that because something looks good, is bigger or is served faster it is better for us.  we  have embraced the world's lie that it must serve us, and our time compacted lifestyles rather than enjoying the pace and beauty at which it was meant to be.   if you want the full story on what is in our foods, you must watch the movie Food, Inc.  it will open your eyes and challenge your thinking.  the ramifications of embracing the nobility of and sacredness with which we have been made will change your life.  


while salatin is a farmer, and his examples come from his farming background, they apply to all of us.  whether we have a patio, an acre or a hill side.  it's the idea of supporting or growing things we know.  can't grow?  then by local.  use fresh products, not processed stuff that is so crammed with chemicals that the nutrients that God intended them to have have vanished.  ditch the GMO!  think about and reflect on how God created this world and how He intended it to function and mimic that .... in your lives, your relationships and your responsibility to be care takers of this planet.


here is Mr Salatin's practical, approach to this .... watch this short preview of the newly released movie "Fresh". (another must watch movie which is just starting to hit the Australian public now.)




and if you have 15:34 to spare .... his TED talk is a must watch to truly understand where he is coming from and the impact that embracing the nobility and sacredness of Him in who's image we are created.