The group researching Jersey Beef from NCSU will be at the Triad Farmers Market this Saturday (25th). They plan to be there around 9:00 AM and will be cooking beef samples and recording people’s responses. We hope you can come by and give them your input.
We understand the 2007 Farm Bill has passed the US House and will be considered by the Senate soon. There doesn’t seem to be any major changes except the most one entity can receive in a year is one million instead of two million dollars. The Farm Bill historically involves billions of dollars to subsidize agribusiness. Forty percent of American farmers do not receive any subsidy. Of the remaining sixty percent, 75% of the money goes to the top ten percent. And “…the richest five percent average about $470,000 each.” (Editorial in Washington Post, Oct. 19, 2005) There is absolutely no program to support small sustainable farms.
The farm subsidy is modeled after the European Union’s program and has about the same effect. We question why do we have to model our programs after someone else? The US did not become the worlds only super power by duplicating what others do. We believe the problem is we do not have any real leaders today. No one has the backbone or heart to set policies for the common good. Justice and equality are supposed to be a foundation of our society, but special interests of the powerful and wealthy obscures the needs of the majority.
All this government money fuels the conventional farming programs the USDA has pushed for sixty years. And the devastating effects on our environment are the return, in part, on our tax money.
Our produce is now in short supply due to the drought, excessive heat, and an over-population of starving deer. It has been over 100 degrees here most days for the last two weeks. With little or no rain crops just cannot produce. And, in spite of all our preventative measures, it is impossible to keep hungry deer away. We have a few tomatoes and okra and that is about all.
We have a good supply of Jersey beef and pork sausage. We have chicken breast, whole legs, wings, etc. Due to the excessive heat we will not have whole chickens until the middle of September.
We will be at the Triad market Friday (9:00 to 1:00) and Saturday (8:00 to 4:00).
Blessings,
Joe Peterson
We were in one of our home grown American stores the other day and everything I saw was made in some other country. The grocery and health food stores are about the same way. About half the worlds produce is grown in China. Many things that are packaged in the US. are produced offshore. There is a company in Asheboro, NC. whose only business is to ‘repack’ tomatoes. A proposed ‘country of origin’ labeling law has been vigorously opposed and delayed by the retail industry for several years. They don’t want you to know where some things (especially food, animal or human) come from.We have been fed the line that ‘globalization’ is inevitable. Two more tactics are used to condition us to go along with it without too much discomfort – 1. That it’s a good thing, and 2. a substitute fear that we will be left behind if we resist it. So, when businesses close up and move to some other country we just quietly tighten our belts a little and complain when local governments raise our taxes to make up for the lost revenue. When there is a recall, after recall, after recall, of contaminated products we just hope the big boys will look after us. (another mental conditioning) In fact, I think some people are in a state of denial that their cheap food supply could be in jeopardy!At some point we have to wake up and realize that only we are in control of what we consume. Why should we continue to send this country’s wealth to some other country? Who convinced us that we should let another country, which may not like us or might even hate us, produce our food? How did we come to the state where we can hardly buy anything produced locally or even in our own country? In our opinion, the powers that be have ‘done a number on us’ and it is up to us to make a change by demanding locally produced food and other products that we consume.
Here’s a little heads-up. Some of you know that NCSU is doing research on our Jersey beef. They will be at the Piedmont Triad Market on Aug. 25 doing a taste test. So plan to be there and give them your input!
Although there have been a few light showers of rain lately, it continues to be a very dry season. We have been cutting down trees so the cattle can get something green to eat. Pastures have improved a bit but it won’t last with the prediction of hot dry conditions for the foreseeable future. Let’s hope it rains soon so we can get the late season greens going!
Blessings,
Joe and Jean Peterson