Another NAIS Story by Henry Lamb

Here's a link to another NAIS story by Henry Lamb. CLICK HERE

Most people have no idea how insidious this National Animal Identification System is. It is nothing less than a totalitarian system and has very little to do with food safety. In fact if it is not stopped or restricted it will only force out small producers and make food less safe in the end by concentrating food production into the hands of a few corporate conglomerates. ie. hamburger meat being shipped from all over the country and even the world into a few large processing facilities, concentrating the risk of contamination of E Coli and other dangerous forms of deadly bacteria.

Since the majority of people no longer live in the country this thing is completely under the radar. Why would someone in Chicago care if a farmer in WI is forced to register his farm with the government. It wouldn't even be a hint of a blip on their list of concerns.

Just today we bought a sheep from a lady who offered and gave us the form for registering our premises. Actually I didn't hear the offer myself but, my wife did and she just kind of shrugged it off and politely took the form anyway. But, this poor woman has swallowed the whole party line, hook line and sinker. Just because someone says it, you gotta do it, right? Yeah, lets all just go jump off a cliff! We'll just put it ( the form) away somewhere for future reference, though I'm tempted to file it in that round file called the garbage can.

City people can pass over this issue pretty easy alright, but mark these words it'll effect everything in time, like it or not. It's the noose around our collective necks as far as freedom is concerned. That's the way I see it anyway.

Thanks to WorldNetDaily for posting this important topic on their website!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reflections

As we are nearing the end of 2007 I’ve been thinking how in 2008 we will have been here at this place for ten years. More precisely, in the spring of next year it will be ten years.

I’ve been thinking that in many ways I still feel quite the novice when it comes to homesteading and trying to raise and grow most of our own food. I remember well when we first moved here how I felt so inept about how to care for everything. For years before the move I had been reading books and publications about how to do things but, it seemed three different sources would give three different ways on how to do something, from growing tomatoes to feeding a horse, from putting up a chicken coop to constructing a house. How do you know which one is right?

But, one thing I knew for sure was I didn’t want to go the modern route of pesticides and chemicals when it came to growing and raising our sustenance. I also new I wanted our habitation to blend in with the environment as much as possible. Coming from a place over run with track homes and gaudy subdivisions I wanted to stay as far away from the current way of things as I could.

One of the thoughts foremost on my mind was the fact that our ancestors didn’t have all these artificial devices to survive with and they did just that, they survived. They raised crops and gardens, they had animals and livestock and they prospered. After all, here we are, the descendants of those gritty people, still reaping the benefits of their hard work and sacrifices.

All through out history mankind has perfected the art of breeding various strains of each kind of domestic animal. We have big dogs and little dogs. Fast horses and sturdy horses. Beautiful breed specific animals, with certain colors or conformation or the utilitarian animal, bred more for function over form regardless of kind. And all through out history these creatures have thrived and without being pumped full of chemicals and drugs. Sure there has always been the effort to come up with remedies for the various ailments that were certain to crop up. In this fallen world there has always been the struggle against pestilence and parasites and the old timers have always had home remedies.

So back in 1998, as we dived into our place here and started raising our own food I had these things in mind. I new it could be done without all the modern trappings. But, we had a lot of indoctrination to undo within ourselves. For instance we had this constant inclination to want to call a veterinarian every time something went awry with one of our animals. I mean that’s what you do, right? An animal comes down with a problem you have to call the vet. My whole life we took our dogs in for their shots. They got wormed, they got vaccinated. They wore flea collars and got flea dipped. Without all that they’d never survive? That’s what we grew up with.

Fortunately when we moved here we didn’t have enough money to spend a lot on vets and all that. When something went wrong we did do all we could on our own. We called people and read in books and applied recommended treatments and remedies, either the animal made it or it didn’t. Occasionally we had to do the humane thing and end the suffering of the poor creature.

Now I’ve come to the opinion that so much of modern animal husbandry with all it’s chemical and pharmaceutical crutches only contributes to weakening the breeds in the end. Temporary fixes with long term degradation. In reality if the individual animal isn’t hardy enough to overcome whatever disease or parasite with it’s own immune system then it should not continue to pass on it’s inherent weakness to more inferior offspring. Kelli and I used to fret and agonize over every little problem with an animal but, now we’ve grown thicker skin and have the view that if it is prone to problems then we don’t want it around.

I mentioned that “fortunately” we didn’t have enough money to spend. If we would have had it to spare then we may have continued on that path much longer of applying "bandages and crutches". When all along, breeding and management is the real long term solution to healthy animals and crops for that matter. And I’m only fairly recently beginning to understand how to do that. Thanks to people who share their knowledge like Joel Salatin and Alan Nation and bloggers like Tom Scepaniak the Northern Farmer or John Mesko of Authentic Agriculture.

Years ago my Uncle Glenn used to say, in regards to ruminants, that “a gut full of grain makes a gut full of worms”. He was a firm believer in feeding animals their natural diets. Grain is not a natural food for a ruminant, grass is. For the longest time I was unsure of my uncles advice. After all, everyone grain fed their animals. So I always supplemented with it just in case. I now understand he was right all along. At least as far as optimum health goes. I’ve never heard else where any connection between grain and worms. Any thoughts out there?

So in order to get our farm going as naturally as possible we have had to undo a lot of misconceptions in our thinking. But, that’s not all we have to overcome. We have to overcome inferior breeding as well. Both with the animals we choose to raise and in the crops we choose to grow. So many of the animals and so many of the crop seeds are bred and raised in such a way as to be dependant on bandages and crutches. It is going to take a conscious effort and hard work to obtain and breed for a natural hardiness, to develop species that will thrive on natural amendments and management.

I guess if I’ve learned anything going on these past ten years now it’s to steer far away from the traditional schools of thought. To not be too upset when a less than hardy plant or animal doesn’t make it. And also to look at nature as a guide. God set certain principles in place for everything. These are what are commonly known as “natural laws”, but in reality they are His laws. I’ve learned to study nature and how things work and to stay away from advice and manufactured products that move away from the natural course of things. People like Salatin work hard at managing their farms by mimicking nature as best they can. Not only does it make common sense buy it makes financial sense as well. I find that to be an encouraging by product of staying away from outside amendments.

Sometimes it’s easier to see what’s not working. But, this past season we worked the hardest we ever have to apply these principles and can testify that they do work. We raised some of the best tasting food we ever have since we’ve been here. I for one can barely stomach store bought food any longer. Naturally grown food is that different. It’s “Authentic” as John Mesko would say.


Until Next Time

The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods

Thanks to John we now have a YouTube version of the below Google video, only instead of one, hour long video it is broken up into 6, 10 minute segments.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6



Thanks to James, for those of you with slow speed internet, here are some additional links to audio files with Jeffrey Smith on the same subject.

Lecture: http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=90

Interview: http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=92

Interview: http://globalpublicmedia.com/jeffrey_smith_speaks_with_julian_darley

Sorry Folks

Sorry folks the Google video linked below isn't coming up anymore. Someone may have taken it off line.

The REAL Reasons You Want to Avoid GM Foods Video

Here's a link to a Google video called 'The Real Reasons You Want To Avoid Genetically Modified Food'.

It's a lecture by Jeffrey Smith author of the book Seeds of Deception. Smith talks about the issues raised in his book the dangers of genetically modified food and of the corruption between the government and GMO industries who are foisting their dangerous organisms upon everyone.

Click here to watch the hour long video. It's well worth the time spent to educate yourself about whats going in the commercial food industry.

Poultry Plant Workers Infected With TB

Alabama health officials have identified 212 workers who have tested positive for tuberculosis at a single poultry plant owned by one of the largest processors in the U.S. Click here for the full WND news story.

More proof that factory farming is a bad idea and that it is best to grow your own food or buy local.