CHARTER JET, ANYBODY?

As you faithful readers know, I've been following leads for a long time to get a 30-minute audience with President Trump to propose a FOOD EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.  

                  The essence is simple:  two voluntary consenting adults exercising freedom of choice may engage in food transactions without asking government's permission. If you want to buy a glass of my raw milk, I should be able to sell it to you.  Ditto for homemade chicken pot pie.  Pepperoni.  Quiche.

                  Yesterday, the White House called:  "this is the White House calling; can Joel come Thursday, June 25, at 3 p.m. to present the FOOD EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION  to the president?"

                  This is two-days' notice on a week I have two speaking engagements in Idaho, which is one of the worst places to try to get in and out of with commercial air travel.  I'm flying today to Boise to spend tomorrow at McIntyre Farm and an evening public gathering, then on to Coer d'Alene for the Modern Homesteading gala Friday and Saturday.

                  Does anyone want to charter a jet for me to get to the White House Thursday and back to Idaho Thursday night?  I proposed this to the White House but nobody volunteered; apparently after giving soybean farmers $12 billion to overproduce beans, the till was empty.

                  Many years ago I committed an error I've never forgotten.  A small group here in Virginia asked me to do a presentation; they didn't have money.  I agreed since they were fairly close and struggling.  A month before the presentation, a big-wheel, well-heeled group asked me to speak to their shindig and they had full money.  I begged off to the small group (cancelled them), found a substitute speaker, and went where the money was.  It was the wrong thing to do and I vowed to never do it again.

                  So here we are, the thing I've been wishing and praying for, tempting that I renege on a commitment that's relatively small in the scheme of things, to get to a meeting with the president.  I looked at every possibility and was willing to do a red-eye, whatever it took, but no flights out of Boise enabled me to fulfill my commitment to the evening presentation Wednesday (tomorrow).  

                  In the end, I turned it down.  The White House (realize that "The White House" is an army of folks) said this is a one-strike deal, the only opportunity.  Well, I don't know about that.  If it's to be, it'll come up again.  What I know is that I can't leave a commitment in the lurch.  Instead, I'm sending my pitch deck and they've promised a proxy will represent my heart and spirit well.  I'm at peace with that.

                  The reason this effort is important is because food freedom answers a multitude of issues:

                  1.  A profitability on-ramp for aspiring entrepreneurial small farmers.

                  2.  Unprecedented food choice in the marketplace.

                  3.  Convenience food without 10,000 artificial additives.

                  4.  Opportunities for food desert self-fulfillment.

                  5.  Break-up of  the food/farm oligarchy without litigation.

                  6.  No additional taxes or government agencies to accomplish these benefits.

                  Does anyone want to charter a jet for me?