The past two years have been a wake-up call to me and to many other Americans like me. Previously, I have never allowed myself to confront the possibility that we Americans might not be the good guys after all. Until I experienced what we have all been through for the past two years. A government that believes it is justified in disregarding fundamental principles of bioethics and the common rule of law. And like many others, when I saw that, it was like having backed into a light switch and suddenly the whole room was lit up, and I could never un-see what had been revealed.
What I have experienced as a result of having my sense of reality severely jarred has been a classic textbook case of the multiple stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, depression, acceptance and hope. All of these stages, which do not necessarily happen in an orderly fashion are natural human attempts to process change and to protect ourselves from trauma while we adapt to a new reality.
Fortunately, I have recently reached the final stages of the grieving process which is acceptance and hope. I now have a workable understanding of where we have been as a culture, where we are now, and at least a dim if somewhat murky glimpse of where we might possibly wind up, although I don’t think there is a certainty in the outcome because it could still take several different paths.
This uncertainty is often referred to as the “fog of war.” And certainly, we are in a war whether we like it or not, so there will be chaos and many unknowns at every stage. However, the one thing that appears to be perfectly clear is that we are living through the first days of a nefariously orchestrated push into a full undemocratic totalitarian world system. Many people recognize this is happening and frankly, many do not.
A natural reaction to change is fear but not all fear is the same. There is an unhealthy fear that paralyzes (such as the fear generated around Covid-19) and there is a healthy fear that mobilizes a person to take preventative action against the negative outcomes causing the fearful reaction.
For myself, freshly exiting the grieving process, I have come to grips at last with the challenges that lie before us. In keeping with healthy fear that drives one to take effective action to produce a positive outcome, my call-to-action has been in assessing and discovering what I can possibly do about the situation that might make a difference. The burning question on the minds of people who are not deep in the mass formation and propaganda blitz is this: What can I do?
I have many activist friends working feverishly on issues like election integrity reform, primary-ing local RINO’s who have proven themselves to be part of the not-so-obvious establishment, and they are doing good and necessary work. But I have discovered that I am not a true-blooded political activist in this way.
So, what are the issues/concerns that are near and dear to my heart and what ideas and skills might I bring to the table?
Over the period of the past several years, I have been educated and trained in two fields that are unique but have a distinct overlap. One is nutritional health and the other is mental health and the two are quite inseparable from one another in viewing holistic human health in terms of body, soul, and spirit. In these fields of study I am both knowledgeable and passionate.
Perhaps the following quote by Wendell Berry explains the inter-connected relationship of the two fields most precisely:
“People are fed by the food industry which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry which pays no attention to food.” ~Wendell Berry
Never was the truth of this statement more evident than during the Covid-19 pandemic. Clearly, our current healthcare system has lost sight of the fact that 75% of chronic disease (high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic disorder, autoimmunity, cancer, stroke, arthritis, dementia, Parkinson’s, etc.) is lifestyle related, of which food quality is fundamental.
Our current healthcare system exhibits very little understanding of what nutrient-dense food actually means and what role it plays in the foundation of health and wellness. Pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are their go-to solution for chronic disease of every kind. After WWII, a global pharmaceutical colossus reincarnated the IG Farben pattern (used in the war) into human society:
- Profit before safety,
- Lethal medical experimentation beyond any legal limit, and
- Widespread use of drugs and vaccinations as a means of control.
IBM and Moderna made it clear that they would “explore” technologies, including AI (Artificial Intelligence), blockchain, and hybrid cloud to support “smarter” covid vaccination management.
They propagated international public-private partnerships aimed at facilitating data sharing between governments, health care providers, life science organizations and individuals. We have recently learned that this data will not be restricted to our health data, but the intention is that it will extend into the private financial affairs of people around the globe as well.
The unparalleled government propaganda and massive censorship campaign against the American people is the main reason that many people remain in the dark as the globalists build out the infrastructure to support their plans for the New World Order.
Likewise, our market economy and monoculture farming are not only killing our natural world but depleting our soil, poisoning our population with GMO food and highly processed “Frankenfood”, destroying our communities and communal ties one by one. Industrial farming diminishes our small scale farmers that practice regenerative agriculture and produce true nourishment.
I view food as one of the last levers remaining to maintain human freedom, to resist the multifarious mechanisms of control that are producing great headwinds against the creation of real wealth. And indeed, the world needs a revolutionary approach to the way we grow and sell our food.
I have immense respect for farmers and food innovators who, through force of will and positing intentionally, have manifested what was formerly non-possible in soil-based urban agriculture.
And I have huge respect for the thousands of perma-culturists, agro-ecologists, biodynamic and dedicated organic practitioners who understand the importance of vital soils and who endeavor to nurture and enrich soil while they nurture and enrich the communities they serve with their wholesome yields.
I also have a lot of respect for those who are finding ways to disintermediate and market and merchandise their products through Farmer’s Markets, co-ops, CSA’s, etc. The key to creating sustainability is to create markets for sustainable products.
We are at a true crossroads in human evolution. There exists a clear choice we are facing between synthetic versus non-synthetic life.
We need to push to create high-value, high nutrition, affordable food with integrity using agricultural practices that support vital soils, clean air, and water- our natural resources and the foundations of wealth on earth.
Otherwise, the advocates of collectivism, synthetic life and trans-humanism will create a new branch of our evolutionary history based on an alternative way to feed the world. We are in a war to determine the future of humanity.
For me, the answer to the question “What can I do?” lies in a purposeful strategy:
- Refuse to participate in “divide-and-conquer” tactics across the board. The issue is not Democrats vs Republicans. I promote healing of the human family, not division. The far greater threat is a coordinated global focus on totalitarianism vs human sovereignty to choose one’s own path through life.
- Think globally, act locally. While being aware of what is happening on the global scale, I will focus my energy toward building parallel structures for local community.
To clarify, two major concerns for me are:
- Soil health – nutrient dense soil to regenerate human health (physical and mental)
- Ecosystem function – to build a more resilient food system locally
Note that neither of these concerns are untethered to my areas of education, training, and passion, rather they are informed by them.
There is great power in growing and cooking your own food. When people are more conscious about their food choices they can change the food chain. They can change what happens on the farm or in their garden. They can change their health issues. They can substantially improve their mental health.
People in the modern organic food movement are creating new agricultural policies locally all over the country. You can do it in your own backyard. We stand to gain much from connecting these dots.
- We stand to regain our physical and mental health.
- We stand to change the landscape of our agriculture and maintain food sovereignty.
- We stand to see a revival of real farming, and on a smaller scale, a revival of the kitchen gardens that have always fed families in days past.
In Wendell Berry’s words, “Eating is an agricultural act.” That’s a powerful statement. What it means is that you have political power in your everyday actions. When you decide what you’re going to eat, what you’re going to grow or buy at a local farmer’s market, you have real influence.
Just think about the “Victory Gardens”, the kitchen gardens that the government encouraged families to plant during the first two World Wars to support the war effort. By May 1943, Victory Gardens supplied 40% of the produce in America for her families and communities. It is estimated that there were some 20 million such gardens in backyards all across America during this time.
This collective grassroots action, heavily encouraged and promoted by the Federal Government was undertaken to relieve the food shortage, to hopefully avoid and prevent food rationing, and to prevent the risk of running out of food during the wars.
Labor and transportation made it hard to harvest and transport fruits and vegetables to market.
Central to the 1940’s, community participants jumped in to “do their part” for the war effort, determined to develop a healthy ecosystem, making the garden sustainable and productive, and it fed the country.
Today, as I have mentioned already, we face a war threat of a different kind. We also face labor and food shortages, poor food quality, high inflation and rising food costs, disruptions in the supply, transport, and distribution of food to grocery stores, and food insecurity. More importantly, we face the potential loss of food sovereignty that is absolutely necessary to our health and welfare and our liberty as a free people.
Tennessee has fed her own before; she can do it again. If it was done successfully for an entire country before, what is to say that it could not be done again today for Middle Tennessee, for my family, my neighborhood, for my community?
Local Farmer’s Markets across Tennessee in conjunction with the modern organic food movement are already well on the way to creating a thriving and accessible local food economy in our state. But the farmers can’t do it all. It’s time to engage every family, every neighborhood in actively growing their own food and connecting to one another in a communal foodway of sorts.
The kitchen garden concept is certainly not a new idea. In the French kitchen garden called a potager as in the Scotland kailyaird, gardeners have intermingled vegetable, fruits, flowers, and herbs since medieval times. The ability of slaves on American colonial plantations to plant gardens to feed themselves certainly saved them from food insecurity and likely in some cases, from starvation.
I believe that the time is ripe for a revival of the original kitchen garden concept that gave rise to the Victory Garden concept during World War I and II, in this current time of war when food sovereignty is endangered and the national food supply is being weaponized against American citizens.
I would propose that these modern kitchen gardens, a distant cousin to the old Victory Gardens, could be styled as Liberty Gardens by people who can see what is happening in our culture and who want to take an active role in resistance.
That’s my vision. That’s where we can take up arms and fight the good fight. One garden, one neighborhood, one community, one bite at a time. History has proven it; we can make a difference by growing our own food today.