The Storm That We Are All Weathering...

Good Monday morning to you!! Our prayer is that this finds all of you well, amidst the storm, we are thankful to have not lost power, which powers many of the comforts that we've become familiar with. Maybe a little too familiar with and even dependent on. I'm almost finished reading a book, "Against the Machine" by Paul Kingsnorth, that I highly recommend to anyone that likes a good read that questions and answers to some degree "How we got where we are?".

First I would like to be transparent and let our members know where we are and what we are considering. Last year was the first year where we were present at the Saluda and Columbus summer markets. Our participation there was fueled by doing the Winter Market at Columbus behind Iron Key Brewery. Everyone has been so nice to chat with and provide for. I opted out of the winter market this year, due to lower inventory and a wedding that we provided our pastured, organically fed meat for. It turned out to be a great learning experience which we are very grateful for. We raised, processed and smoked 31 chickens for the event and it turned out great! One of the workers from the catering company that handled the potato bar and other things, inquired as to whether we sold our meat at that scale. I told him that we did not do this as a practice or business, but wow what an opportunity it could be! Not sure how that would work out legally for us if anyone wanted to challenge it. We are afterall a private organization.

I guess that's one portion of concern that comes from the obstacle of what I view as governmental overreach. Where I see that our Constitution secures the freedom of two consenting adults to make a decision to provide and consume a product, our business alone, it must remain in the private domain and is protected by the agreement that our members are required to sign. The other option creates many more opportunities for growth, but requires these products to adhere to the guidelines set forth by public agencies that have gone off the rails due to political and corporate bureaucracy which has led to compromised quality, inhumane practices, but provides cheaper prices.

For a century now, (since the Great Depression) people have been looking for the cheapest options available and that has paved the way for producers to become as efficient as possible. This has led us to the mechanical age of food production and what better way to do that, then with as little of people being involved as possible. Whether that is by way of pesticides, herbicides, or mechanical separation, in the end the bureaucrats have figured a way to make it profitable to the producers, whether by actual sales or by grants and subsidies. This has led to the public being manipulated to think that what the public agencies oversee is the best choice monetarily and nutritionally. That would be a great model if it was true. What I see is that we've been fed compromised products for so long, we can't tell the difference and if we can, we no longer care because compromise has become palatable. Take a look at these excerpts from an article I recently found, published by USA Today:

When I try to process this, I see where someone has charged McDonalds with a misrepresentation, whether good hearted or looking for a payday, their allegation probably has merit. On the other side, I see that people have lost concern about what they eat, scalded stomach or not. Not to mention that the lives of the animals that are consumed are probably more offensive than consuming parts of animals that they would never otherwise consume, but people still do it because it tastes good (I'm told) and it's convenient.

The truth of it is this. As we have moved into this more mechanized reality, we've lost the ability to care as much about our food because the sourcing is so far removed from our responsibility, which removes it from our reality. When what we consume is questioned, the integrity of both our responsibilities and realities is questioned and we'd rather stay ignorant and order our two patties of meat-like substance, special sauce like substance and cheese like substance on a sesame seed bun.

So let's take a poll...

Do you think that ingredients should be listed in plain sight?

Would it cause you to source your food differently??

Thankfully,

Gordon & Elizabeth