Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal, by Joel Salatin.
if there ever ran a rebellious streak in your heart that you knew was justified and right ... then you will love this book. Joel Salatin has become my hero and an icon of what i have always wanted to yell from the rafters, "THE SYSTEM IS SCREWED UP!!!!"
Salatin builds his book on a simple premise ... that the government has it wrong. not the republican or democractic government (or here in australia the liberal or labor government) .... but the politicians. they make the assumption that everyone is out to get each other (possibly because that is the way that they operate), and in doing so have so completely over regulated the small guy that he can't win. he is screwed even before he starts.
and it's you and i who loose in the long run. his premise is that with all the governmental regulations it means that grandma doesn't make those amazing cookies anymore .... or that the rich yummi-ness of fresh milk is a thing of the past. it is destroying our individual ability to be creative because of ludicrous government regulations.
but he also challenges us with a solution .... rebel. start to trust your neighbor and to own your own responsibilities in life. if you want to eat meat or produce that has been locally grown but doesn't fit government guidelines .... then you should be able to. and to own that decision! if you make a silly mistake and have something you shouldn't have .... you don't blame someone else.... you don't seek retribution in the court systems. you go, "gee .... I made a stupid mistake and I need to be responsible." in other words .... we need to act like adults and treat each other with respect.
Salatin reveals much about his own personal life and trials as the anecdotes and stories pour forth. he calls himself a Christian, Libertarian, Environmentalist, Capitalist Farmer. basically, what he is saying is don't peg him in any one camp. he's an issues driven fella ... and boy .... does that win points with me! i wondered how in the world he got away with what he did .... he is so articulate and clearly thought out. and then it came out .... he is a debater. on the debate team in school and in uni. he said it was the best part of his education. no doubt! with all the battles he has had to fight.
if i could pick on one thing it would be that the stories seem unending. almost a "same song, 5th verse" at some points. but you know .... i think that's his point. the government has tried to screw him over from his chooks to his beef to his forestry to his home .... and that gets old. i am amazed at his tenacity to fight.
i love this book. i laughed too ... it's hard not too with the satirical style that he has. the vivid imagery and his ability to call it as he sees it is is thoroughly engrossing. read this book. you will never be sorry for the insight and perspective it gives on the plight of the farmer and how we as individuals are being treated by the government.
Showing posts with label joel salatin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joel salatin. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
freedom to choose
i have started reading Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, by joel salatin. review to come, but in the meantime, it has me thinking, again, about the control that the industry has over so much of what we do. yeah, they SAY it is in our best interest. but honestly .... we know the lobby for the big business is very strong and very powerful .... do you really think that controlling so much of our day-to-day lives is really in our best interest?
what would bless my socks off would be for people to take the time to educate themselves to the issues at hand. why do we so often take the easy out and just assume that it's ok for the government to control our lives and choose what we put on our tables each day? just take the time to watch Food, Inc. or Gasland and you will understand that it is the big business lobby that is in it for their own interests and gain. and they are happy for you to not think and not use your brain to make your own best decisions for your family.
here in australia ......
joel salatin makes the point very early on in his book that the government is out to make you think that everyone wants to give you a raw deal. that they will use unsafe standards or contaminated materials to make their goods with. what would happen if we chose to have the opposite perspective. that our neighbor farmer or producer is just out to grow goods and sell them. to make some great creamy ice cream, home made jams or breads. what if we believed in that and supported it rather than regulating it out of existence?
i know that i am feeling the affects of this quite directly. we want for me to be able to stay at home and be there when our kids are growing. this means i need to try and develop an income generator from home. what better than playing off the things i love? cooking and fresh produce! value adding to what we grow so that we have yummy preserved and canned goods .... to sell and share with our community. it's a win win! i can stay home for my kids and local buyers get yummy food. alas, the regulations are so tight here that i am unable to cook in my own kitchen because it's not a commercial kitchen! they assume i am out to do the wrong thing ... to hurt people, or earn a cheap dollar. it's really wrong! it's denying me the right to earn a living through what i do and for people to enjoy delectably yummy and good food that is .... egad .... healthy!
we need to fight this mentality. people are so lethargic when it comes to what we put in our bodies. don't wewant to eat healthy good food? stuff that will give us energy and nutrients rather than filling us with empty calories? we need to fight this because we should have the freedom to decide what is best for our families. we need to fight this way of thinking because it is our right to live free and enjoy the foods we want!
make a difference. by local. shop at your are market, not the large chain grocery stores. go to a butcher to buy your meat .... ask if it is grain or grass fed (you always want grass!). if you see a road side stall .... stop and buy their produce! it may not be as pretty as the stuff in the large grocery stores .... but i bet it tastes better!
and the most important way we can make a difference is to think. if we come across a regulation that is inhibiting our freedom .... question it. talk to your local poli ... find out the rationale behind it. is there a large multi-national behind it? can almost guarantee that regulation will assist them! use your freedom of expression and thinking to understand and make an educated choice .... not an easy or convenient choice .... but an educated choice!
what would bless my socks off would be for people to take the time to educate themselves to the issues at hand. why do we so often take the easy out and just assume that it's ok for the government to control our lives and choose what we put on our tables each day? just take the time to watch Food, Inc. or Gasland and you will understand that it is the big business lobby that is in it for their own interests and gain. and they are happy for you to not think and not use your brain to make your own best decisions for your family.
here in australia ......
- the CSIRO is apparently getting into bed and doing a food trial with GM food manufactures and wants to grow it here in Australia .... even thought most of the developed world is against it! (including the US and Canada) http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/news/food/GM-wheat-scandal/
- Australian mining companies are participating in unsafe fracking .... near water supplies! SMH Article on Mining Practices.
joel salatin makes the point very early on in his book that the government is out to make you think that everyone wants to give you a raw deal. that they will use unsafe standards or contaminated materials to make their goods with. what would happen if we chose to have the opposite perspective. that our neighbor farmer or producer is just out to grow goods and sell them. to make some great creamy ice cream, home made jams or breads. what if we believed in that and supported it rather than regulating it out of existence?
i know that i am feeling the affects of this quite directly. we want for me to be able to stay at home and be there when our kids are growing. this means i need to try and develop an income generator from home. what better than playing off the things i love? cooking and fresh produce! value adding to what we grow so that we have yummy preserved and canned goods .... to sell and share with our community. it's a win win! i can stay home for my kids and local buyers get yummy food. alas, the regulations are so tight here that i am unable to cook in my own kitchen because it's not a commercial kitchen! they assume i am out to do the wrong thing ... to hurt people, or earn a cheap dollar. it's really wrong! it's denying me the right to earn a living through what i do and for people to enjoy delectably yummy and good food that is .... egad .... healthy!
we need to fight this mentality. people are so lethargic when it comes to what we put in our bodies. don't wewant to eat healthy good food? stuff that will give us energy and nutrients rather than filling us with empty calories? we need to fight this because we should have the freedom to decide what is best for our families. we need to fight this way of thinking because it is our right to live free and enjoy the foods we want!
make a difference. by local. shop at your are market, not the large chain grocery stores. go to a butcher to buy your meat .... ask if it is grain or grass fed (you always want grass!). if you see a road side stall .... stop and buy their produce! it may not be as pretty as the stuff in the large grocery stores .... but i bet it tastes better!
and the most important way we can make a difference is to think. if we come across a regulation that is inhibiting our freedom .... question it. talk to your local poli ... find out the rationale behind it. is there a large multi-national behind it? can almost guarantee that regulation will assist them! use your freedom of expression and thinking to understand and make an educated choice .... not an easy or convenient choice .... but an educated choice!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
our families love affair continues ...
ok .... my admiration and my husband's man crush continues. and he's coming back to Australia ... to share his wisdom and amazing insight. his unique (and catching!) perspective is shared in a humourous and engaging way ... and is also very confronting with regards to our assumptions about what is and isn't happening in our world. at the basis of his assumption ... YES! you can feed the world!
if you watch these video's and are mad keen to see him in person .... check out the workshop at the Regenag Website. it is certainly worth the effort for the inspiration and encouragement he will be!
here is his presentation in Canberra in late 2010. WOW is all i can say. it's straight off of YouTube and broken down into 3 parts for easy watching. enjoy! <g> i know you will!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
if you watch these video's and are mad keen to see him in person .... check out the workshop at the Regenag Website. it is certainly worth the effort for the inspiration and encouragement he will be!
here is his presentation in Canberra in late 2010. WOW is all i can say. it's straight off of YouTube and broken down into 3 parts for easy watching. enjoy! <g> i know you will!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
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 ....
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.
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.
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