End of week 6 at Mount!

Cali and Bonnie and I just finished listening to the podcast about Barbara's year of life eating locally grown and homegrown food.

The author and interviewer bring up some good points about people's mentality about farmers' market and organic products. A lot of people think this is reserved for the elite. This mentality is true and we even see it in Alliance. They moved the farmers' market downtown so that the folks on that side of town could also have access to locally grown produce. Instead, the normal frequenters of the old location have just adapted to coming down to the other side of town.

I guess a lot of this podcast had a lot to do with human mentality and how it affects what and how they eat and consume products.

In one part she talks about "harvesting" the animals on her farm and how that term has become less harsh for her. Harvesting, slaughtering, butchering...it doesn't matter what term you use, it means the same thing. A majority of the animals on this planet are meant to be consumed in some way. All three of us agree with the whole dignity part of an animal's life. However, she cannot know for a fact that a turkey doesn't want to live til 100 and know its grandchilden. Perhaps its not their mentality, but its not really her place to decide what an animal is thinking.

Another good idea she mentions is the vegetable bookmobile that goes around low income neighborhoods. This would be a good idea to implement in more urban communities.

She talks about government and its involvement in this whole food buying and selling process. She says that we are the government and that we have the laws in this country that we allow. Without making this too political, I personally don't agree with that. The way this voting system works...yeah the minority hardly has any say in anything.

Also, there is no way we could just turn to locally grown food alone and not also buy food grown overseas. If we would do that then should other countries do the same with us and tur away food we send to underprivileged areas? Perhaps there should be more of a balance between locally grown food and imported products, but we cannot just not buy any imports at all.

This county does pride itself in wastefulness, its true. Its been a long process of getting to this point however. The development of bigger and better things turned the world into a material place. Everyone wants bigger and better and doesn't think about the little person any more. This includes the local farmers and business owners.

The main thing to remember about this book is that it is a story. She even says it herself. She picked and chose what she put into the book, so therefore we aren't getting a whole picture of what life would be like with this lifestyle. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate if she kept a year-long journal.