FREEDOM FEARS
Can you stand another angle to the FOOD EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION? As I've watched the flow of comments from these posts and of course listened to feedback out on the speaking circuit when I've presented the idea, the pushback regarding "what ifs" is profound and deeply disconcerting.
I do believe the similarity between America's food system and early American slavery is identical. The plantation slave owners were equivalent to Tyson and Monsanto/Bayer--same mentality and same objectives. The government bent over backwards to protect the plantation overlords by passing things like the Fugitive Slave Law. Abolitionists, perhaps equivalent to many in the MAHA movement today, demanded legislative relief; they cared not a lick about the interests of the plantation fat cats and elevated everything to a moral level. They wanted this terrible thing outlawed. Period.
Just try selling a quart of homemade tomato soup to a friend at church and see how many federal agents show up on your doorstep. Our food system and food choice are shackled by a plethora of regulations just like the slaves' freedom to choose their vocation and livelihood were shackled by regulatory intervention.
The notion that neighbors should be able to engage in unregulated food transactions, however, elicits cries of concerns. "Who's checking farmers to see if their food is safe?" "Who protects a farmer from liability if there's no licensing compliance?" "What if somebody gets sick?" These and a host of other qualms paralyze even entertaining the notion of food choice.
The Underground Railroad was a clandestine and largely illegal conduit to shepherd slave escapees from their condition. Those of us in the food choice business often feel like drug dealers, meeting folks in dark parking lots to transfer some raw milk or unlicensed lard. I wonder how many hushed conversations occurred among slaves regarding their escape.
And how many responded to the one who said "I'm leaving" with a fearful "but what if you get lost?" "What if you get killed when the dogs find you?" "What if you starve or can't find water?" "What if you can't find work?" I'm sure a host of fears surfaced during these conversations; most slaves stayed home. Just like today.
But some chose to leave. And those who participated in the Underground Railroad did not tell them to go back because they might get lost, or get sick, or get killed, or starve to death. No, they applauded the savvy and burning desire to escape. This led me to wonder if our modern mentality existed in 1855, would there be an Underground Railroad?
Sad to say, I think it would not have existed. Back then, the intrepid freedom-loving risk-taking DNA of Americanism had not succumbed to the nanny state. The USDA had not yet been invented (no thank you, Abraham Lincoln). Normal people were far more intrepid.
If slavery existed today, the Underground Railroad would be demonized as too dangerous, too risky for the large plantation employers (who will pick the cotton? who will pick tomatoes? who will gut chickens?). The whole concept of fleeing to freedom would be considered too risky to imagine. As a culture, we've become scared of our own shadow, and that fear keeps us shackled to government taskmasters.
Health care, social security, the Federal Reserve, public education, minimum wage, food regulations--all of these indicate a timid fetal-position culture too freedom fearful to launch initiatives that require risk, personal responsibility, and self-reliance. We blame the government for every personal and social malady, refusing to look in the mirror and step up to personal agency. I'm frustrated and sick of it. Let's grow up. Let's spit out the government pacifier, potty train ourselves, and launch joyfully into risky freedom. Let's embrace faith in freedom, not fear in shackles.
I'm thinking maybe I need to write a book titled FOOD EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION to dig deep into these ideas. Should I?