Food Freedom

[SwissMrs&Pitchfire]

President Ezra Taft Benson, Do Not Despair, Ensign (CR), November 1974, p.65

Fifth, health. The condition of the physical body can affect the spirit. Thats why the Lord gave us the Word of Wisdom. He also said that we should retire to our beds early and arise early (see D&C 88:124), that we should not run faster than we have strength (see D&C 10:4), and that we should use moderation in all good things. In general, the more food we eat in its natural state and the less it is refined without additives, the healthier it will be for us. Food can affect the mind, and deficiencies in certain elements in the body can promote mental depression. A good physical examination periodically is a safeguard and may spot problems that can be remedied. Rest and physical exercise are essential, and a walk in the fresh air can refresh the spirit. Wholesome recreation is part of our religion, and a change of pace is necessary, and even its anticipation can lift the spirit.

If we knew how bad preservatives were for us, we would never allow them in our foods.

We expect to be farmers, a great many of us. We expect to introduce all kinds of machinery and manufactures. We expect to build mills. We expect to have our merchandise and our stores and storehouses in that land.

Orson Pratt 1879

If we did not allow preservatives in our foods, all of our foods would have to be grown semi-locally. If our foods were grown locally, we would not have to worry about our jobs being outsourced or opportunity forcing us to flee to another region.

We would see a return to family farms and self sufficiency on a communal level. What a blessing that would be to our health physically, mentally, economically!

What a boon to freedom it would be to stand independent of all earthly things.

All a result of exposing the inherent dangers of preservatives!

[buffalo_girl]

Yes, that's why city people need to be aware of the intent to control ALL food sources. Independent farms will be driven off the land by regulations, licensing, control of markets by corporations, Agenda 21, carbon taxes, etc., etc., etc....USDA has cheapened the terms "Organic", "Natural", "Grass Fed", "Chemical Free" to be virtually meaningless so that Big Ag can sell their products under those 'friendly' labels.

Your food will ALL be GMO, cloned, hormone additive & anti-biotic laden, irradiated (destroys essential amino acids), flouridated (used as a pesticide for most fresh fruits & vegetables), transgenic (mouse genes x tomato), and devoid of nutrients (chemical fertilizers make things grow, but add no vitamins or minerals which don't already exist in the soil). Most soils have been mined for decades. You are basically eating an image of what a fruit or vegetable could be. Your meat comes from who knows where? We can't buy locally grown beef or pork in the only grocery store in the nearest town eleven miles from our farm. The grocer doesn't know where his 'cuts' originate. Maybe from California, Canada, Mexico. Who knows?

Soon, we won't be able to truck a live lamb or a calf which has been sold to a neighbor, to the local butcher to be slaughtered and cut up. Without having a Premise Registered Farm and without an RFID tag in every animal on the place we won't be able to buy or sell an animal or even ride a horse out the front gate without being in violation of NAIS.

Hope you have all the food storage you will be needing. I have a feeling if this thing gets as bad as it could, we won't be allowed to keep a few chickens or rabbits for food - let alone dairy cattle or sheep. One pass of foot & mouth and one sweep of engineered 'chicken flu' will turn this country into a nightmare of slaughtering and burning - just like England in 2001- 6 1//2 million cloven hoofed animals most of which were unaffected by Hoof & Mouth (for which there is a vaccine), with the exception of the Royal deer and zoo animals. I guess they were just 'special'.

[a-train]

Support local business and buy local products with cash. It is simple. If you work for someone that is not local, consider leaving to open a competing local business. I would rather live a lower standard of living to stay running my business than work for some company based somewhere far away that takes more money from my local economy than it gives. As this mindset continues to grow, the big corps will shrink and the local shops will return.

Oh, a-train, it's hopeless! Everything is geared to squash the small business and you know it!

Well if you think that, then at least it's been squashed for you. I enjoy frequenting the many locally owned and operated restaurants, gas stations, groceries, hardware stores, the farmers markets, and other shops in my area.

-a-train

[buffalo_girl]

You are doing exactly the right thing, a-train. Most people in rural ND would just as soon drive 50-100 miles to Wal-Mart.

[Stephen]

More from Ezra Taft Benson on nutrition...this is a great talk...

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.p ... 8&x=59&y=4

Second: food. To a great extent we are physically what we eat. Most of us are acquainted with some of the prohibitions, such as no tea, coffee, tobacco, or alcohol. What need additional emphasis are the positive aspects--the need for vegetables, fruits, and grains, particularly wheat. In most cases, the closer these can be, when eaten, to their natural state-- without overrefinement and processing--the healthier we will be. To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours because we overindulge in junk foods. I am grateful to know that on this campus you can get apples from vending machines, that you have in your student center a fine salad bar, and that you produce an excellent loaf of natural whole-grain bread. Keep it up and keep progressing in that direction. We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the "king's meat"--and whose countenances show it (see Daniel 1).

Listen to the talk and you'll find that he comes off really serious. People laugh and think he's joking...but it didn't seem that way to me.

[SwissMrs&Pitchfire]

Buffalo Girl is right. It is almost impossible to buy decent (fit for long term consumption) food. The only answer is self sufficiency.

Journal of Discourses, 26 vols., 17:, p.72

We occupy a different position from the rest of the world. We believe in the revelations of Jesus Christ contained in the Bible as well as in the record or stick of Joseph in the hands of Ephraim,-the Book of Mormon, which gives a history of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, We also believe in the Book of Revelations, which were given through the mouth of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, to the Latter-day Saints and to the inhabitants of the earth. Inasmuch, then, as we believe these things, we, if we carry out our faith, must of necessity go to and prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of the revelations of God. When we are in possession of the Spirit of God we understand that there is a change at the door, not only for us but for all the world. There are certain events awaiting the nations of the earth as well as Zion; and when these events overtake us we will be preserved if we take the counsel that is given us and unite our time, labor and means, and produce what we need for our own use; but without this we shall not be prepared to sustain ourselves and we shall suffer loss and inconvenience thereby. I am satisfied that as a people, pursuing the cause we have pursued hitherto, we are not prepared for the Zion of Enoch or the kingdom of God. There was an order carried out anciently by the people of this continent and by the people of the city of Enoch, wherever that was located, which was very different from the practice which has prevailed among the Saints of latter days; and as far as such a system being any injury to us I can see none in the world. I can see no injury that can overtake the Latter-day Saints, by their uniting together, according to the law of God, and producing from the elements that which they need to eat, drink and wear, and I feel as though the time has come for such an order to be instituted; and the readiness with which the people receive the teachings of the servants of God in regard to this matter is a testimony that the time has come to favor Zion. The Spirit of God bears witness to the congregations of the Saints of the importance of the principles which have been given unto us, and hence their readiness to receive them.

Pioneers Thriving in 1856, First Fair Proves, LDS Church News, 1989, 09/09/89

In a July 28, 1847, sermon, President Young said: "The Kingdom of God cannot rise independent of the Gentile nations until we produce, manufacture, and make every article of use, convenience, or necessity among our people."

Wilford Woodruff, The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, edited by G. Homer Durham, p.168

UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF HOME MANUFACTURING. President Young has taken the lead in establishing woolen factories in this Territory. Others have assisted in this work, but he has done much more than any other man, and now we have several good mills for the manufacture of cloth and other fabrics owned and run by the Saints in Utah. Still we send many large quantities of wool abroad instead of using it in our own mills, and import goods of outside manufacture instead of making them at home. How long will it be before we are poor, and our Territory drained of all the money we can raise, if we continue this? We should not send our wool to be manufactured in the States, and then pay our money for cloth brought from there here. Where are our wool growers? What are they thinking about when they do this? This is an item which I consider of vital importance to the Latter-day Saints. We should keep our wool at home, and we should manufacture this wool into cloth, and we should buy and pay for that cloth, and support home manufactures. This is a principle which we have neglected in a great degree; but we have got to come to it some time. We have got either to make ourselves self-sustaining, or we shall have to go without a good many things that we now regard as almost indispensable for our welfare and comfort, for there is not a man who believes in the revelations of God but what believes the day is at hand when there will be trouble among the nations of the earth, when great Babylon will come in remembrance before God, and his judgments will visit the nations. When that day comes, if Zion has food and raiment and the comforts of life she must produce them, and there must be a beginning to these things.-JD 16:33, April 7, 1873.

Wilford Woodruff, The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, edited by G. Homer Durham, p.171

There are very many advantages that will accrue to us if we unite our hearts, feelings, labors, interests, property, and everything that we are made stewards over. One thing is certain, we cannot continue in the course that we have pursued in regard to temporal matters. It is suicidal for any people to import ten dollar's worth of products while they export only one, and it is a miracle and a wonder to me that we have lived as long as we have under this order of things. We have sent millions of dollars out of the Territory every year, for articles for our home consumption, while we have exported but very little; hence I say that the establishment and success of this new order among us will bring about our temporal salvation.-JD 17:69-70, May 8, 1874.

[ChelC]

We are starting our square foot garden this year... actually started last year and it froze on us before we finished. Going to start composting and all that fun stuff. The last couple years our vegetable garden has been decent, but the weeding was out of control and we weren't very organized. I'm going to choose a couple of the crops and learn how to save the seeds from those. My plan is to learn how to save over seeds from 2 or 3 per year until I know how to do them all. I'm hoping our fruit trees will take off this year and maybe next year if we are lucky we'll get some fruit.

I like the idea of fruit stands and farmers markets. Who has local grocery stores anymore? We have several associated foods which are locally owned, but does the bulk of the money stay there or is it paid to the franchise owners in who knows where? It seems to me that most food places are franchised, and you are hard pressed to find clothing made in the US anymore.

[jbalm]

We are starting our square foot garden this year... actually started last year and it froze on us before we finished.

We started the square foot gardening thing last year. I was surprised at how well the system works. And it was actually kind of fun. Gotta love Mel.

[SwissMrs&Pitchfire]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/451604c4-e30b ... ck_check=1

High food prices may force aid rationing

By Javier Blas in Washington and Gillian Tett in London

Published: February 24 2008 22:02 | Last updated: February 24 2008 22:02

The United Nation’s agency responsible for relieving hunger is drawing up plans to ration food aid in response to the spiralling cost of agricultural commodities.

The World Food Programme is holding crisis talks to decide what aid to halt if new donations do not arrive in the short term.

Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, told the Financial Times that the agency would look at “cutting the food rations or even the number or people reached” if donors did not provide more money.

“Our ability to reach people is going down just as the needs go up,” she said.

WFP officials hope the cuts can be avoided, but warned that the agency’s budget requirements were rising by several million dollars a week because of climbing food prices.

The WFP crisis talks come as the body sees the emergence of a “new area of hunger” in developing countries where even middle-class, urban people are being “priced out of the food market” because of rising food prices.

The warning suggests that the price jump in agricultural commodities – such as wheat, corn, rice and soyabeans – is having a wider impact than thought, hitting countries that have previously largely escaped hunger.

“We are seeing a new face of hunger in which people are being priced out of the food market,” said Ms Sheeran.

Hunger is now “affecting a wide range of countries”, she said, pointing to Indonesia, Yemen and Mexico. “Situations that were previously not urgent – they are now.”

The main focus of the WFP to date has been to provide aid in areas where food was unavailable. But the programme now faces having to help countries where the price of food, rather than shortages, is the problem.

Ms Sheeran said that in response to rising food costs, families in developing countries were moving in some cases from three meals a day to just one, or dropping a diverse diet to rely on one staple food.

In response to increasing food prices, Egypt has widened its food rationing system for the first time in two decades while Pakistan has reintroduced a ration card system that was abandoned in the mid-1980s.

Countries such as China and Russia are imposing price controls while others, such as Argentina and Vietnam, are enforcing foreign sales taxes or export bans. Importing countries are lowering their tariffs.

Food prices are rising on a mix of strong demand from developing countries; a rising global population; more frequent floods and droughts caused by climate change; and the biofuel industry’s appetite for grains, analysts say. Soyabean prices on Friday hit an all-time high of $14.22 a bushel while corn prices jumped to a fresh 12-year high of $5.25 a bushel.

The price of rice and wheat has doubled in the past year while freight costs have also increased sharply on the back of rising fuel prices.

The world’s poor countries will have to pay 35 per cent more for their cereals imports, taking the total cost to a record $33.1bn (in the year to July 2008, even as their food purchases fall 2 per cent, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The US Department of Agriculture warned this week that high agricultural commodities prices would continue for at least the next two to three years.

[Stephen]

The Sunday Times
February 24, 2008

Food shortages loom as wheat crop shrinks and prices rise
Jonathan Leake


THE world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat supplies after stocks fell to their lowest levels for 50 years.

The crisis has pushed prices to an all-time high and could lead to further hikes in the price of bread, beer, biscuits and other basic foods.

It could also exacerbate serious food shortages in developing countries especially in Africa.

The crisis comes after two successive years of disastrous wheat harvests, which saw production fall from 624m to 600m tonnes, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Experts blame climate change as heatwaves caused a slump in harvests last year in eastern Europe, Canada, Morocco and Australia, all big wheat producers.

Booming populations and a switch to a meat-rich diet in the developing world also mean that about 110m tons of the world’s annual wheat crop is being diverted to feed livestock.

Short term pressures have compounded the problem. Speculative buying by investors gambling on further price rises has further pushed up prices.

Though shortages are often blamed on the use of land for biofuel crops, the main biofuel cereal crop is maize, not wheat. Farmers have brought millions of acres of fallow land into production and the FAO predicts that the shortages could be eliminated within 12 months.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb20 ... -f25.shtml

http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=48995

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 423734.ece

[prew]

We received a lot of snow this winter. That is going to create problems for the winter wheat. If the winter wheat is covered to long; mold could kill many plants and reduce the crop.
Melting snow will delay the planting in the spring, because heavy equipment can not get on the fields. If their is lots of spring rain, planting will be delayed, because of the same reason.

I look at the news and see that there is record snow fall in many places. So planting delays will be wide spread.

[ChelC]

So start praying for the crops now.

I've heard some really neat stories due to my husbands job. One which sticks in my head but the details are fuzzy is about a farmer who had a personal farm and also tended the church farm. Eventually, I can't remember why, he had to devote all of his energies to the church farm, and prayed over his own that it would produce. Despite the minimum attention he was able to pay his own farm, his yield was greater than the church farm yield.

Another comes from our old stake president. They were preparing to send him or his brother on a mission and his parents prayed about how to pay for it. it was decided that they would double plant their corn even though it was a huge risk of total failure. They fasted and prayed over it and the money from that crop that they saved and I assume invested paid for ALL of the boys missions.

[Proud 2b Peculiar]

We usually can turn our soil right now, but not yet.

We are expanding our garden and will be praying a lot for it ourselves.

[ChelC]

You may know this already, but in case you don't - if you turn the soil too early when it is still soggy you will compact it more instead of aerating it. We learned that the hard way and just had to redo it a couple times.

[prew]

I was outside in the garden yesterday evening, before the sun went down. I still have about 4 - 6 inches of snow on top of the garden. The ground is not frozen under the snow. So when it melts, the moisture will soak into the ground.
I am not to worried about compacting the soil if I plant to early, I prepared half the garden last fall; it is just waiting for seed. The other half I will prepare after the snow melts for warm weather plants.
I am just worried about frost heaving. I didn't prepare the strawberries for winter like I should. I just ran out of time. Strawberries are shallow rooted and easy to get up rooted when frost heaving gets bad.
Yea, prayer will have to do.