Brad’s Take

MatronOfHusbandry writes about The Pot (of butter!) at the End of Rainbow.

The article is great, and covers a lot of topics which expand even further in the comment, including the impact of choosing industrial-style farming – right down to imported, Irish butter – over finding and choosing locally produced butter.

“I suppose farming will keep on going how it is”

I think that is pretty obvious. Climate and economic instability make our ability to feed our neighbors, our nation, and the world an issue worthy of concern. The current affluent-era, industrial style farming currently meets that need. I don’t see anyone winning anything if industrial style farming were dismantled before local, sustainable, superior food quality production is ready to replace it.

The currently aging industrial farm population, without an incoming legion of apprentice and journeyman farmers supporting, learning, and preparing to continue the practices make such a transition not just desirable, but pose a looming threat to food security.

The current debt deflation crisis (eroding the affluent credit market that makes industrial, Monsanto-style farming feasible) and rising energy costs, as well as threats to oil availability as world demand continues to erode the ability to produce enough oil to meet demand (that is, erratic availability and rising prices of all classes of energy) contribute to that looming threat.

I think looking at so-called “modern” farming practices, and farmers, is the wrong focus. Yes, there will be some fringe few willing to experiment and change. One focus might be to influence state agriculture colleges to investigate alternative practices and promulgate better ways through state extension services. Unfortunately, the focus on what a small farm can do doesn’t relate well when an operation is already at the level of 500 head of livestock, or several thousands of acres under cultivation.

One thought I had was a form of homestead program. An area of an existing, large farm might be set aside, and leased out in a rent-to-own proposition to “homesteaders” – people that would occupy and farm the land, perhaps a 10-40 acre parcel, for 10 years at modest rent (much below industrial-style farm land rent!). County extension or some similar service would be ready to educate, equip, and counsel the occupants on low-energy, sustained fertility, sustainable farming practices. The donor farm and occupants should receive tax benefits during the “settling” years. At the end of the 10 years the occupant would acquire clear title, the county tax base would increase, and hopefully the local food security would improve. Possibly applicants could be targeted to those with backgrounds or interest in farm life – or just desperately unemployed but educable. Farm life, after all, is scary as all get out, for those used to a highly structured corporate or union life.

I don’t see getting all the pieces ever getting put together for such a scheme. But there may be opportunities, where a local farm ceases to operate on the death of the operator – and China and other nations are kept from buying the land for producing food for their own people.

Many of today’s farmers have families that provide ballast that keeps them on the track they are now. Convincing an adult’s mate to choose chores over convenient shopping, making do over the latest advertised fashion or widget, or tearing up part of the yard for (more) garden space goes way beyond the issue.

It gets all the way back to how we choose a mate. The “pioneers” that took wagon trains from their beginnings back east picked a mate, for the most part, that was capable of and willing to work for security and survival. Many mates today are chosen for willingness to cuddle or whether they dress and act like Playboy or Chippendale icons. I can see revering a school football team – with a success record of providing a high number of armed services soldiers and sailors. The local acclaim that is the most any teams today boast is pretty petty and transitory – but it gets a lot of couples together, that have little cultural guidance or values established that emphasize respect, honor, and character. Or service. Too many people in the last several generations have known only the relatively forgiving, affluent life we see eroding around us today.

The real place to start for change, is going to be with the children. This is something the government in the 1950s and 1960s convinced my parents and grandparents not to do – that the nation needed every child to be an engineer (or fashion model or trophy wife), not to learn the culture and craft of their family and neighbors.

Check out Matron‘s delightful photography and presentation of her various small farming techniques – all chosen to maintain and improve the fertility of the soil, improve the quality of the beef and produce she raises, and joy in her life.

Sharon Astyk makes a compelling argument that local food production can be safe and wholesome.

The cost, though, is prohibitive. Regulations regard every operation as if they are selling into the mainstream, national exposure of industrial agriculture.

Consider the hamburger, a chunk of meat taken from the ground up parts of perhaps 1,000 different cows, or maybe just one. The point is that the meat industry takes all the pieces and blends them together, so that meat from grass-fed young animals won’t taste one way, and retired (old) dairy cows and bulls (tasting of their stronger hormones) won’t taste another. Blend them all, and the taste stays consistent, hiding the healthier taste and quality into the mix.

Or milk. Milk is gathered from the cow, mixed into the daily gathering’s tank, gathered into the bulk transport, gathered into the processing plant vats. Each gathering from transport, from farm, from cow, must be clean and safe, in order for the bulk tank to be safe, and then for each container filled from that tank to be safe.

When Joe down the road milks his cow, and pours it into a quart jar with his name and date, you need the cow to be healthy, and Joe to work cleanly. And that is it. If Joe makes a mistake, maybe 20 people will be affected; if Joe were selling to a big dairy association (they won’t take Joe’s milk if he has less than a hundred cows), his mistake could affect thousands of households. It economically affordable to be extra sure the big, bulk processing inputs are all regulated and mistake-free (or almost).

Joe and his cow, and the folk that prefer the taste of non-watered milk from Joe’s cow, should be allowed to buy what they want. Even if it doesn’t have enough water added to make it USDA-compliant so-called “whole” milk.

My thought has been to limit regulations to those selling 10,000 servings per year. That would place a fairly reasonable definition of “small producer” on the books.

A local supplier selling their own products, under their label, means that tracking problems back to the source gets quite simple. Different regulations should apply when your products aren’t mixed in with someone else’s products. The tomatoes in a bin labeled “Brad’s Tomatoes” should have different regulations than the bin labeled “Product of Chile”. (I have nothing against Chile or other places, and I am happy to have their fruits when they are available.)

If I sell Sharon a bushel of, say, loofa (if I can get the dang fruit to grow nearly as well as the vine), and it keeps that “Brad’s Garden” identifier right to the sale to the customer, so the customer can call and complain to me or identify me to the county health or doctor or whoever needs problems reported to – that satisfies, and should set that bushel aside from, public health concerns. Because at that point, the exposure isn’t “the public” to “the product” – it is “my community” exposed to “Brad’s Garden”. And that is a personal, entirely different kind of relationship.

Just one for-instance. Try suing Brad’s Garden for $10. I go out of business. And anything I might have been growing is lost to the community. If I should be shut down, then everyone (but me) wins. Should someone think twice about cost to the community, before suing? I think so. Especially if any problem could be corrected in person.

This kind of approach would pose a problem for a roadside stand or grocer that wants to lump the last of apples from Brad’s Garden with the apples from two neighbors into a remnants bin. Maybe.

So, I figure a garden might be nice. I like popcorn, I plan a patch of that, maybe 6×10. I like a nice bell pepper in the crock pot, so a few would be handy. A couple of tomatoes seem like they would go well in the crock pot, too. And beans. Lots of beans. I forget why, I think for combining with vienna sausage or hot dogs. Maybe some ground beef and peppers for a version of chili without chili powder (I consider “spicy” is when I add brown sugar to the oatmeal).

So I got to ordering seed. I have a box. Some say to start the seeds early. I built a bracket for an old card table; it holds a 13 watt flourescent under-counter light fixture, with an 18 inch grow light, about 17 inches above the table. The table sets in front of an east-facing windows.

Lowe’s had some jiffy planting setups. I picked up a three-pack of trays with 72 little plug cells each, and another with five of the cardboard plug 10-packs.

I figured if I needed to thin things, I should plant the beefsteak tomatoes (millingtonseed.com) and black cherry tomatoes (Baker Creek Nursery, rareseeds.com) two to a plug, then replant if both seeds sprouted. Almost all did. I figured, if everyone is buying tomatoes at $3 and $4 at Lowes, I can sell a bunch at the flea market and make up the cost of the Lowe’s expedition for planting stuff. Greenfield’s nursery opened a hut behind Payless Shoes here in Ponca City. $2.50 for four plants. I sold 48 plants at $0.50 each, gave away a couple dozen. I have six beefsteak plants about 3-4 inches (I sold and gave away the bigger plants, it just seemed right), and three Black Cherry (I wanted to keep four, but, well). So I didn’t make a bunch, and the starting planters didn’t cost much.

The peppers were interesting. I ordered Red Cheese (Baker Creek Nursery, rareseeds.com) and Purple Beauty. They stuck in a packet of Sweet Chocolate peppers. The Sweet Chocolate germinated 100%, quickly, and matured faster than the other peppers; they look exciting. In my excitement, though, I forgot to order Bell peppers – so I picked up a distressed pair at TSC. I am looking forward to these peppers, for me and maybe some to sell. We’ll see.

I have been reading about some good Brussel’s Sprouts, so I got some. And feeding cabbage and broccoli to the chickens seems to make sense. Supposedly I can feed Mangel-Wurzel (a beet plant) to the pony. We’ll see – I have been feeding beet pulp shreds for years.

Now, if I can manage to covert historic-grade prairie sod to garden soil bed. .

The Crunchy Chicken kicks off her latest Challenge to Reduce Food Waste.

I wish all that participate good luck on making your food quantity match your needs, budgeting anything can be a challenge. Luck to all of us to do better, too!

Reading Crunchy’s article, it occurred to me – if you have too much food around, does that mean you aren’t feeding friends and neighbors often enough?

Which brings up Sharon Astyk’s concern about community building as a necessary part of Peak Oil preparation. How can you balance a tightly planned menu with trading meals – having guests, or eating elsewhere – at either planned or spontaneous events or invitations?

In the last few decades many of us have come to think of meal time as the family only, when we should also be considering sharing hospitality and meals. I can remember, years ago, recipes always came with suggestions on how to stretch the unexpectedly for an extra plate or two.

My Dad farmed. When trading work, if you were at the neighbor’s place at noon, or they were at your place for shared work – mid-day meal was provided and expected. And was almost as substantial as a social event related to the work, as a substantial “hungry man’s” meal.

I would like to see adding a guest invitation per week to the reduce waste challenge.

Because I think that what is needed isn’t just parsimony – using the bare minimum. I think we need to use that frugality to amass useful and usable surplus – wealth. Wealth, or surplus, allows us to be generous. You cannot give when you don’t have a needed asset.

When growing up, I recall spending weeks visiting cousins and my grandparents from year to year. This kept the extended family together, expanded our awareness of the world and different ways to live, and exposed us to different kinds of discipline and even different ways to prepare food.

Eating at a neighbor’s house happened at least monthly, if not every other week or so, more often in the summer. You know, when you could send someone to the garden for an extra bowl of peas and tomatoes for the dinner already on the stove.

I see Crunchy’s mid-winter food waste challenge as being a great exercise in planning and values. But I would hate to have someone overlook keeping a well-stocked pantry, and using it well to offer hospitality and build relationships and community. Or even just to brag a bit on canning, gardening, and cooking skills. Because that happened a bit, too. Anyone could feel just a bit content, for a reputation as setting a “good” table.

I am thinking my plans for a garden are even more important than I thought, if I can use it to stretch food resources to cover more shared meals. Now if I can just get the clutter off the pile where I think I left the kitchen table. . .

The local store/deli I eat at – Snyders Chicken and Catering, 3151 W. North Ave., Ponca City, OK – has gotten more expensive. The chicken is just great – the best in town. The meal I get most often, though has gone from about $4.50 last fall to $6.10. That makes a 35% jump in inflation.

It is happening at Wal-Mart, too. Beanee Weanees, the short can, GreatValue store brand, have gone from 58 cents last summer to 86 cents this week. For me that is an inflation of 48%.

Everything is going up. Let’s not talk about Propane and gas prices, on their way up again, both.

And that “incentive” tax credit? Up to $800 for $20,000 earnings? That seems mostly like 4% – much less than inflation since last November by any count.

Fedex, UPS, and the Post Office keep raising their prices – which ripples through to affect everyone once or twice over as companies absorb extra costs – and taxes, and costs of borrowing money – and raise their prices to recover some of those expenses.

The story at Wal-Mart is even worse for me. I like the 10 cent Great Value brand Ramen Noodles. Only they aren’t available any more – off the shelves, no space for them. Only the Ramuchen at 13 cents. GreatValue pudding four-packs at 88 cents? Gone. Only the Hunts at $1.00 so far. That looks like 30% and 12% inflation right there. The Sam’s Choice plastic wrap? Gone. And that was a really good weight, easy to use dispenser box, at a moderate price.

AT&T bought out Southwest Bell telephone service here. And my bill went up from $59 a month, gradually, to $71 last fall. It still climbs by nickels and dimes, but I changed to a long distance company that charges less ($4.64 last month, vs. $34 with addons and fees).

I work part time at the local theatre. Until the minimum wage went up last summer I was making $0.80 more than minimum. Not I get $0.30 more, and expect to lose that in July when the minimum wage goes up next time.

That is – Barack Hussein Obama is going to have to do a hell of a lot more to repay me what he has cost me this far. And he should keep in mind that the KGB is predicting the US comes apart and unglued by June next year – well before the next elections. The rationale is that the government goes broke, and the states stop sending money in to be wasted. That scenario was apparent to Moscow 9 years ago – why the Democrats don’t see the danger this week is a moral and political conundrum (puzzle, that is). Seriously – Pandarin’s map shows the states divided 6 ways, and each group dominated by a foreign country.

I got some more garden seed ordered yesterday – some oilseed sunflowers, for salad oil. I found this writeup on hulling the seeds and extracting the oil. If I can find some sugar beet seed, I want that for horse feed (the beet pulp). I don’t plan on competing with sugar companies – yet – but the beet pulp will help with the livestock, that and the vegetable oil. That and the half dozen chicks growing in the barn, I am starting to plan for the future.

Yep, our president is a mighty handsome man, and he will tell anyone how smart he is. It is the graft, corruption, kickbacks (like giving Chrysler to the UAW), and ignoring the needs and rights of working Americans I detest. I like a cartoon I saw yesterday, “Obama has the *pork* flu – keep him unconscious, every time he wakes up he spends a trillion dollars!”

But I’m not bitter.