COMMERCIAL KITCHENS AND DRUGS

I'm in Mexico, about 2 hours south of Mexico City, conducting my two-day master class for farmers.  The class is organized by the chapter leaders of the Weston A. Price Foundation here in Mexico.

 Both of the women who are ramrodding this event make and sell food.  One makes ferments and the other makes bone broth, like 200 pints a week.  The market for the ferments includes the Mexican affiliate of the supermarket chain HEB, which is prominent in Texas.

 Neither has a single license, permit, commercial kitchen, or anything.  In fact, the term "commercial kitchen" doesn't even exist in Mexico.  You can make anything in your home or farm kitchen and sell it anywhere without any permit; at least that's the story I'm hearing.  And I keep asking about it because it seems so incredible. 

 I'm waiting for everyone in Mexico to drop dead without "government oversight" on all these cottage food businesses.  Nobody is getting sick; they have more choice; great food is way cheaper in comparison to industrial.  This is why my dad headed to Venezuela in 1949 to farm; he saw the free market and food choice opportunity in other countries that did not exist in the U.S. --way back then.  It's only gotten worse.

 But here's where things get interesting.  The other tidbit is that Mexicans do not use drugs.  We Americans assume that since El Chapo and drug gangs often operate in Mexico and have extensions into the U.S. that people in Mexico must use drugs.  According to my hosts, Mexico is simply a conduit for drugs; nobody uses them here.

 So I'm trying to make sense of this.  Mexico has food freedom and no drugs.  In the U.S. we have food gestapo and lots of drugs.  Is it possible that the two are related?  Maybe if we had food freedom in the U.S. people wouldn't need to get a drug fix because they'd be getting an integrity food fix. 

 I don't think very many Polyface customers have a drug problem.  Perhaps good food makes you less drug prone.  In Mexico, they have food freedom and no drug problem; in the U.S. we have food tyranny and a real drug problem.  Instead of asking for more food police, how about we try freedom for a change?  Maybe it would eliminate our drug problem too.

 Do you know any integrity food buyers with a drug problem?

 PS:  If you like these posts, please share so we can touch more people with these kinds of connected dots that you won't see anywhere else.  Thank you.