Things are heating up in Baraboo, Wisconsin as a long awaited food rights trial approaches.
Raw milk drinkers are outraged that Wisconsin DATCP is bringing criminal charges against a farmer who serves a private buying club. Do citizens have a right to contract with a producer and grow food to their own standards? That is what is at stake in this case. – Kimberly Hartke, Publicist Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Customers and Other Supporters to Attend Court with Farmer
Food rights activists from around North America will meet at the Sauk County Courthouse in this tiny town on May 20 to support Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger and food sovereignty. Hershberger, whose trial begins that day, is charged with four criminal misdemeanors that could land this husband and father in county jail for up to 30 months with fines of over $10,000…
The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) targeted Hershberger for supplying a private buying club with fresh milk and other farm products.
DATCP has charged Hershberger with, among other things, operating a retail food establishment without a license. Hershberger repeatedly rejects this, citing that he provides foods only to paid members in a private buying club and is not subject to state food regulations.
Hershberger says:
There is more at stake here than just a farmer and his few customers — this is about the fundamental right of farmers and consumers to engage in peaceful, private, mutually consenting agreements for food, without additional oversight.
Campbell & Ferrara plant expert Dodi Turney will help you learn how to choose and combine the best plants for your container garden. Planted containers create an instant garden and are the ultimate fashion statement in modern urban gardening.
John http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ gives you a tour of his front yard garden and talks about weedy vegetables or plants that will re-seed themselves in your garden so you don’t have to replant them. In this episode John will share with you about a dozen crops that have dropped seed and come up on their own in his garden. By growing weedy vegetables it will reduce the amount of work so you can be eating more out of your organic garden and less out of the grocery store.
Permaculture is a system of ecological design that strives to emulate natural ecosystems so that our gardens and farms become self-sustaining, healthy and bountiful. It seeks to create gardens and landscapes that arrange all the elements of the design in ways that maximize the synergy of the design while minimizing the need for human inputs such as labour, fertilizer and pesticides. Trees and idea of forest gardening play a big part. Increasingly the principles of permaculture are being adapted for homes, even in the cities and suburbs. Travis Philp, a trained environmental and eco management technician, is a resident of the Greenshire Eco Farm where he manages the permaculture garden beds and looks after crop planting, maintenance, harvest and the weekly filling of food boxes. He will show you how to incorporate the principles of permaculture around your home or farm.
(Hugelkultur images courtesy Paul Wheaton, http://richsoil.com/hugelkultur.)
This is the full video of the no dig garden construction workshop from 2009 that the previous quick video was made from. The video features Bob Jones and Myk Rushton
You do not have to follow the video specifically, you can use different materials – just follow the general pattern of construction
This is my eighth year as a full time Internet activist. The longer I’m fighting this “War on Evil”, the more I’m concerned with the effectiveness of resistance. No matter what our cause, liberty, false-flag terrorism, free Palestine, debt-free currency, New World Order, Illuminati, chemtrails, vaccination, cancer cures, drug prohibition, or historic revisionism, we must first and foremost make a conscience decision about what’s more important to us, being right or resisting effectively.
The decline in the Monarch population now marks a statistical long-term trend and can no longer be seen as a combination of yearly or seasonal events, experts say.
The number of Monarch butterflies making it to their winter refuge in Mexico dropped 59 per cent this year, falling to the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began 20 years ago, scientists reported Wednesday.
It was the third straight year of declines for the orange-and-black butterflies that migrate from the United States and Canada to spend the winter sheltering in mountaintop fir forests in central Mexico. Six of the last seven years have shown drops, and there are now only one-fifteenth as many butterflies as there were in 1997.
In the Hamilton region, Monarchs have been faced with a loss of habitat for many years said Jen Baker, Head-of-the-Lake Land Trust Program co-ordinator for the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club. Milkweed, the Monarchs’ main food source as well as where they lay their eggs, has been decreasing in the region.
“Milkweed can’t necessarily grow in fields that are sprayed for weeds. It might be good for crops, but it’s bad for milkweed,” she said, adding that invasive species also pose a risk.
“Dog Strangling Vine is an invasive plant that is a cousin of the milkweed. We’ve found some females will lay their eggs on the vine and the babies die because that’s not their food.”
Both planting milkweed and trying to control the Dog Strangling Vine population are both efforts the Naturalists’ Club encourages, Baker added.
The decline in the Monarch population now marks a statistical long-term trend and can no longer be seen as a combination of yearly or seasonal events, the experts said.
But they differed on the possible causes.
There are issues facing Monarchs south of the border, too, according to experts. Illegal logging in the reserve established in the Monarch wintering grounds was long thought to contribute, but such logging has been vastly reduced by increased protection, enforcement and alternative development programs in Mexico.
The World Wildlife Fund, one of the groups that sponsored the butterfly census, blamed climate conditions and agricultural practices, especially the use of pesticides that kill off the Monarchs’ main food source, milkweed. The butterflies breed and live in the north in the summer, and migrate to Mexico in the winter.
“The decrease of Monarch butterflies … probably is due to the negative effects of reduction in milkweed and extreme variation in the United States and Canada,” the fund and its partner organizations said in a statement.
Monarchs ‘a shared responsibility’ Omar Vidal, the World Wildlife Fund director in Mexico, said: “The conservation of the Monarch butterfly is a shared responsibility between Mexico, the United States and Canada. By protecting the reserves and having practically eliminated large-scale illegal logging, Mexico has done its part.”
“It is now necessary for the United States and Canada to do their part and protect the butterflies’ habitat in their territories,” Vidal said.
As demand for local and raw goods continue to rise, more people are asking – where do I find local organic? Where do I find raw milk and join a herd share? Where are the farmers markets, co-ops and stands?
Search engines are actually terrible at locating these underground hubs, which makes it so frustrating to try and opt out of corporate chains, save money, and build your family’s health. If you’ve ever gotten a bunch of ‘Yelp’ listings for weight loss pills while searching, you know what I’m talking about. I’ve helped a few people find a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) but I found it by accident. So where are they all hiding?
As it turns out, many of the farmers and markets you’re looking for have teamed up with certain websites to be mapped. Use this easy list to find yours today. They won’t all be on the same map, but you will be sure to find markets and family farms in your area that were previously invisible.
Why you should bookmark and try them all – not all the hubs will be organic, some are just local. Some don’t provide raw milk but could lead you there. Some have other resources like healthy body care, organic delivery or restaurants serving your favorite farm finds worth looking into. Some of the websites don’t share your political perspective or stance on health and were possibly supported by agencies and organizations you don’t care for. But that’s okay, take only what you need and leave the rest.
20 Quick Resources to Find Local Food, Farms, Markets, Stands, Co-ops and more!
Farmerspal - Click the map or your state to find organic, markets, grocers, online shopping and more. Make sure you like their Facebook page for other great resources.
FarmMatch - Unique because whoever you are, you can put yourself on the map to be matched with producers in your area. Create your food profile today. LocalDirt - Helps you buy right from the farm. It’s also a marketplace that allows you to sell and trade. Got eggs? Sell them to your neighbors here. It also allows groups and co-ops to set up bulk orders right there. This one is worth revisiting time and again to check out all its features.
Weston A Price Chapter Leaders – This is my favorite, because it puts you in touch with passionate people who give their time to connect you to your CSA and quite possibly raw milk and dairy. They will have the latest sources. Weston A. Price Foundation is a wealth of knowledge for traditional foods and health.
Real Milk Finder – Also from Weston A. Price, this locator could help you to your raw milk and dairy herd share source. Please keep in mind, raw milk availability really depends on your state laws. And not all of the herd share programs are listed there so be sure to read the next important list item.
Meetup – This seems like a weird place to get the connections but it makes sense. Meetup allows groups to safely connect online and publicly meet to enjoy hobbies, clubs, politics, education – anything. It’s just people meeting up, doing what they love, learning or just having fun – I attribute so many happy, life-changing times to this website. This is how I found my CSA! I went to a nutrition wholefoods meetup to take free natural food classes. The woman running it was a Weston A. Price chapter leader who graciously led me through the entire process and got me connected to raw milk and pasture-fed foods. Wherever people who are passionate about their lifestyle meet, you are sure to pick up a wealth of resources and support. You should check it out to find like-minded people and get out there. I’ve made great friends this way. Some people find their soul mate!
There really are very few “perfect” locations for a prepper. A very common excuse that some people give as to why they cannot prep is their current location. People say, “Well, once we are able to get moved to our farm in two years I’ll start prepping hardcore.” Another favorite is “I’m saving the money for moving instead of using it for preps.” Or even worse, ”Oh, there is no point in prepping here, because if the SHTF I’ll be dead.”
Stop this kind of thinking RIGHT NOW!!!!!!
Sometimes, to borrow an old saying, you just have to bloom where you’re planted.
There are many things you can do to increase your preparedness wherever you happen to live. Apartment dwellers at the top of a city high rise, folks in the middle of the desert, and people in HOA-ruled suburban lots all have to examine their situations, figure out their pros and cons, and work towards resolving what they can. With some pre-planning, there is a lot you can overcome if you have the right mindset. I suspect there are just as many (and probably far more) preppers living in the ‘burbs than there are living in perfect rural locations, with a lake, 10 acres of cultivated farmland in an off-grid house.
Money is tight all over. It’s very easy for people to say, off-the-cuff, “Oh, you should move.”
But just picking up and moving isn’t that easy. It took me nearly 4 years to be able to do that. People have obligations and ties that some Joe-Blow on the internet shouting out advice can’t even begin to understand. Some in the prepping community have a complete disconnect with the realities of everyday people. There are reasons like:
Not enough money to leave
A good job (very hard to come by these days)
Family members in the area that you don’t want to abandon
No work opportunities where you want to go
Custody orders that require you to remain in a certain area
A spouse who is not on board
A house that won’t sell or with an upside-down mortgage
The list goes on and on. There are as many reasons to remain in one place as there are people living in cities. And yes, I could sit here and refute each and every reason a person has chosen to remain, but it wouldn’t do one bit of good. People are sometimes alienated by the prepping movement when it seems that everything is black and white or like their personal decisions are somehow less valid than the decisions of some random person on the internet.
That’s why it’s important to take your current situation, warts and all, and work with it. This doesn’t mean that you should abandon your plans for a better location some time in the future if such a move is warranted. But it means that you shouldn’t put off important preparedness steps until after that move is made.
Assess Your Situation
You don’t know where to go if you don’t know where you are. The first and most vital step is an honest assessment of your current situation. The situation that you have right now, this very minute, not the one you will have in a month or in a year. Assess your needs regarding the following in a SHTF scenario or disaster:
Water
Sanitation
Food/Cooking
Heating
Security
Light
Once you know exactly where you are with these things, you can begin to look for solutions that will work for you, today. Dig in and make a plan for the survival of your family.
And a little note to those who say, “It doesn’t matter, I’m in downtown Manhattan. I’ll die anyway.”
No, you won’t. You won’t be that lucky. You will be absolutely thoroughly miserable, breathing foul unhealthy air. You’ll be thirsty enough to drink unsanitary water, which will cause bowel issues to worsen problem #1. You’ll be hungry, but not hungry enough that you die of starvation. You will be at the mercy of thugs better armed than you. And you won’t die, not right away. You will live like I just described, and it will be horrible. Look at the residents of Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy. They didn’t die but they were absolutely miserable, they were terrified, they were eating from dumpsters, and much of it could have been avoided with some basic preparedness.
Survival in a Population Dense Area
Before I relocated to my little cabin in the woods I lived in a very metropolitan area. I was lucky in that I had 1/10th of an acre. I did everything I could come up with to make my little house as sustainable as possible should the poop hit the oscillating device before I could get out. A disaster in the city IS survivable.
I planted every inch of the back yard and grew enough food that the home-canned and frozen produce lasted until Christmas. I stockpiled groceries. I had plywood cut and pre-drilled to cover each window of the house. I had printed official looking quarantine signs to hang on the door of my house as a deterrent. I put together a little outdoor fireplace in the backyard behind my fence. I got a big dog. I collected rainwater from downspouts at each corner of the house. I purchased an antique oil heater in good working order, and stockpiled heating oil. I had enough seeds to plant for the next 4 years. I located nearby sources of water, wood, and nuts. I got a wagon for hauling stuff if the transportation system was down.
In short, I did everything possible to make the best of a potentially terrible location. It wasn’t perfect, but we would have outlasted most of the other people in our residential neighborhood and done so under the radar.
The Priorities
Let’s take a look at each of the major challenges that we face in a SHTF situation. Obviously different disasters offer different challenges. These lists aren’t meant to be comprehensive. They are meant to be a starting point to get your wheels turning on how you and your family can best survive, exactly where you’re planted right now.
Water
You can only survive for 3 days without water (and you’ll be weak and suffering way before that) so that should put water preparedness at the very top of your list. Some ideas: 1 month supply of drinking water stored (plan on a gallon per day, per person and pet), non-electric water filtration system (with spare filters), buckets along with a sled or wheel barrow depending on the season for transporting water, a water catchment system, water purification supplies (bleach, pool shock, tablets), system for catching gray water to be reused for flushing, washing, etc.
Sanitation
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York, it was reported that people were defecating and urinating in the hallways of apartment buildings once the sewer system stopped working. Lack of sanitation is not only unpleasant, but it spreads disease. Some ideas: portapotty, buckets lined with heavy duty trash bags, kitty litter, water for flushing if you have septic, learn how to shut off the main valve so that city sewage cannot back up into your house or apartment, supplies to build an outhouse, lime, baby wipes,antibacterial wipes, white vinegar, bleach, hand sanitizer, extra toilet paper.
Food/Cooking
Most preppers have a food supply, but have you considered how you’re going to prepare all those beans if your stove doesn’t work? Some ideas: Minimum of 1 month of food for each family member and pet; alternative cooking methods indoors like a fondue pot, a woodstove, propane stove, or fireplace; outdoor cooking methods like a barbecue (beware of tantalizing smells and hungry neighbors), outdoor fireplace or firepit, rocket stove, or sun oven; and foods that don’t require cooking or heating.
This is a video response to all the people asking me how to make a vertical garden that is based on the phytopod. I go through all the steps and supplies that you will need in order to build your own vertical garden.
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Growing Vertically in Small Spaces – Examples of Vertical Gardening Trellis Methods
John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com visits a local community garden and shares with you some examples of vertical trellis methods. Watch this video to get ideas on how to grow vertically when using Square Foot Gardening SFG or not.
The decline in the Monarch population now marks a statistical long-term trend and can no longer be seen as a combination of yearly or seasonal events, experts say.
You don’t know where to go if you don’t know where you are. The first and most vital step is an honest assessment of your current situation. The situation that you have right now, this very minute, not the one you will have in a month or in a year. Assess your needs regarding the following in a SHTF scenario or disaster:
