Northern Farmer

The calves are all home as of this evening. And three quarters of the cows too. But the big thing is that they are not together. And is it ever noisy here, wow! The only way that I can hope to get any sleep will be with a box fan set on medium in the bedroom tonight to hum out the bellering. But the sound out there is kinda music to my ears knowing that another season of raising beef is coming to a close. It had it’s up’s and downs, but it was a good one. Them beef we have here really have a good life when a person thinks about it. Wandering around in the pastures all summer totally content raising their calves. In winter they have all the good food they need and still get to wander around and find the spot they are most comfortable. Very seldom do they need shelter, but when they do it’s there for them. And they calve in the spring when it’s warm out making it easier on them and me. All their lives they never eat anything from off of this farm.

We’re not certified Organic here, could very easily be, but I’m starting to wonder about what’s happening with all of that. I think very few people would argue that the term “Organic” is being hijacked by Multi National Big Ag. I just read today how we are even importing a huge amount of “Organic” products from China. I guess they’re getting too fat over there so they figure they should help feed us instead. What would we do without them and the New World Order?? When I think of good food what comes to my mind is sustainable farms buying very little inputs, growing and raising superior products. “Deep Organics” if you will. Well, you can bet the farm that most of the Organic products on the supermarket shelves in the future will not be any different than any commercial products now. Take milk for instance, the huge western dairies are after the government to get them certified organic, and the government will sooner or later let them, because government gets their political donations from these huge companies. Soon the shoppers that think they are doing their family some good buying something labeled organic will be feeding their families food no different than any factory farm foods. There’ll be eggs and chickens labeled organic that are raised totally the same as the huge factory broiler operations. There’ll be commercials advertizing it as “fresh from family farms to your table”, I’ve heard that one already. And the consumer will be duped. Meanwhile a family farm that is doing deep organic sustainable farming will come under closer scrutiny from “big brother” with the Big Ag companies cheering them on.

So what should we do on our farm? Well, they can keep their certification. I’m not shelling out thousands every year to have me put in the same class as these shallow organic hucksters. Why should we pay hard earned money to put us in the same class as these inferior imposters. And then be subject to some government employee that failed in everything else they’ve ever done telling me how to run this place. But there are quite a few folks noticing what Big Ag is up to and a person comes across the reaction to all of this. I just love how for every action Big Ag takes to pervert something good there’s a reaction. There’s been alot of stories in the papers and magazines how people in the know want to buy from the farmer. I can’t think of a better route to go than that. That’s what we do when we want to buy food we don’t raise. Two evenings ago we cut and wrapped a lamb bought direct from a farm here, we go out of our way to buy certain vegetables that we failed miserably raising here, “cabbage family”. When we attempt to raise any cabbage type plant I could save the bugs the trouble and just blast the heads with buckshot and get it over with, someday I’ll figure it out. In our local paper there’s articles from time to time about how so many people want to buy direct but don’t know where to look. Time to remedy that situation. And as consumers start to understand how Big Ag is perverting the organic label the demand will grow for farm fresh product.

It does get to me sometimes how a person can put their heart and soul into raising such good products like so many family farms do and then have corporations try to pull the rug out from under them in the name of quarterly profits. Notice the key word there, “try”. These companies can’t get these family farms to join them in their quest to dominate everything so they try to pervert the product and the label, in that way gradually taking them in under their wings and quarterly profits. But these farmers will slip right through Big Ag’s fingers, I beleive. We’re a slippery bunch, we survived this long and some of us are starting to get good at it. So, I guess that sums it up somewhat, the reason we’re not interested in government certification. We’ll just keep raising the good stuff.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2005 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.