Green Acres

 

 

“If you’re going to complain about farmers, make sure you don’t talk with your mouth full”

 

 ~ Molly Tiernan ~

“There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.”
 

 ~ Mahatma Gandhi ~

“They got money for wars but can’t feed the poor.” 

~ Tupac Shakur ~

 

And we can't go any further without my favorite quote about farmers: "If you ate today, thank a farmer." In some cases, this quote, along with the Tiernan quote from above, could be considered true. But if you're from Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, or nearly any other state which grows millions of acres of feed corn and soybeans, it simply isn't true. What is true is that we don't have anywhere near what I'd call a food shortage in the United States, or the world, for that matter. What we do have is a world-wide distribution problem. We have subsidized farming and a greed problem. People simply aren't starving because there isn't enough food.

Before I go one step further, let me be clear that I have the utmost respect for farmers and the hard work they do, and to some degree, the risks they take. What I don't support is the farming industry and the way it's set up to maximize profit and control distribution. And this isn't just in the farming industry. Like just about any other industry you can name, farming is a product of capitalism and is more about profit than it is about food. And believe me when I tell you, we're all about to suffer for it in a big way.

How did I come to this cynical conclusion, you may ask? I spent two years helping some local, well-established farmers during harvest. They made the mistake of sharing some numbers with me and I started digging just a bit.  Math wasn't my strongest subject in school, but I've gotten good enough to do the basics, which is mostly all it takes to figure out some basic profit and loss and distribution.

I drove a grain cart, which means I could see each and every bushel of corn or soybeans picked go through the computer. It's simple division to determine bushels picked based on weight, but it isn't really necessary. The computer does it for you. I won't bore you with the daily details, but what I can tell you is that, in round numbers, they harvested 250,000 bushels of corn each year. Of that 250,000 bushels, 10,000 bushels were transported to the local Cooperative. And the other 240,000 bushels? Well, these former truck drivers spent all winter each year delivering corn to the closest ethanol plant to make government subsidized gas for your car. Surely you've noticed that 10% ethanol gas at the pump is less money than regular unleaded, even though the process is more expensive.

So, why would these farmers (and most of the others) sell all this corn to make gasoline? It pays better. Much better, actually. In some cases a dollar per bushel better. Take that times 240,000 bushels, and now you're talking about real money. And why on earth would selling corn for ethanol pay better than selling it for food? Listen, Linda. We have enough food. The ethanol commodity is government-subsidized.

If you'll recall from your basic Economics class, when demand for a product increases, so generally does its price. When you have an overstock of something, it drives the prices down. And in the case of corn, excess supply was bringing it down... a lot. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but that whole, "knee high by the fourth of July" nonsense is long gone. Now corn is 6-8' tall by that date. Modified strains of seed, better insecticides and herbicides, and endless supplies of irrigation, have pushed production way, way up. Irrigation alone basically doubles the yield compared to dryland corn. So, what is one to do with all this excess and still keep the price up? You create a market for it (ethanol), and then you subsidize it. The same is true of soybeans, but to a lesser extent. Another crop for another time.

It sure sounds like everyone wins, doesn't it? There's already enough food. So why not make a way to support farmers that helps stretch the supply of fossil fuels and utilizes all this corn. I'll tell you why, and there are two reasons I can think of just off the top of my head. The first in my mind is that you have to fix the distribution problem so that no one in the world goes hungry while we're growing record crops before you do anything else! How inhumane is it for a starving child to know or see or even hear about sources of food going to put fuel in cars? And make no mistake, there's also a large percentage of corn crop going to feed cattle, an obvious food source, and yet, feeding grain to cattle is a ridiculously inefficient use of the crop. And I haven't even addressed water yet. 

The second reason in my opinion, and likely the most important, is the impact agriculture is having on our environment. You can argue all you want about climate change and whether or not it's happening. Of course it's happening. It's been happening since the last ice age. The question isn't whether or not it's happening. The question is, 'At what rate?" It's now happening at an exponential rate and human beings and agriculture have almost everything to do with the rate at which it's changing. Here's partly how.

Since white Europeans hit the continent and started farming, more and more of our native grasses have been converted to farmland. In fact, by some estimates, up to 98% of the once lush grasslands of the Great Plains have been lost to agriculture. That creates a species issue, a water retention issue, an erosion issue, and even a carbon dioxide issue. Sure, crops create oxygen, blah blah blah, but only a fraction of what is produced by trees and native grasses for only a fraction of the time. In addition, erosion and over-planting (even with "no-till" and crop rotation) is killing our topsoil. If you've been sleeping, an adequate topsoil is part of the equation that keeps us all alive. By the admission of the farmers I worked for, the topsoil depth, when they began farming in the area some 50 years ago, was about 2 feet. Today,  the depth is closer to 6 inches, and yet, we keep planting.

Have you heard of the Ogallala Aquifer? In most of the Midwestern states and throughout the Plains, it's where we get our fresh water. If you had a glass of water today, it came from the Ogallala Aquifer. It's also what gets used for irrigation of crops...the ones that go to make gasoline, biodiesel, corn syrup, plastic, and other useless crap to a starving child. And if you think we don't have starving kids right here in Nebraska...hell, right here in Jefferson County, you're just not paying attention. But I digress. The Ogallala Aquifer is slated to be mostly gone by 2050. That's 26 years. You think wars over oil are bad, wait until Midwesterners start killing each other over something to drink. 

Just like the decades-old conflict between Israel and Palestine, many will try to say this is a complicated issue. And I can see where you might want to lean that direction. Sure, working out how to pay farmers, create demand, feed everyone, and fuel our cars has a lot of moving parts. But the one moving part we can't ignore is our environment, and especially, our water. It's running out. And it's running out locally in our lifetime.  When that happens, none of the other parts will matter. 

It's not complicated.

Namaste

 

It's Not that Complicated

"Perspective can definitely be filtered by when you decide to jump into the discussion."

~JH~ 

 

My friend, who responded to a post of mine on Facebook with the above quote, is correct. Your perspective can, and often is, filtered by when you decide to jump into any discussion. And I can tell you exactly where I was when I decided, after 50 years of keeping my head in the sand, to enter this one.

I was on vacation, driving down Hwy 168 in North Carolina, when I began to notice Israeli flags flying everywhere. Billboards, road-side attractions, and storefronts by the dozens were brandishing the Israeli flag and boasting, "We stand with Israel!" And because I'm an American and I like to be supportive, I thought, "I'd better stand with Israel, too!" Followed by, "I wonder what's going on in Israel." To be honest, I hadn't been keeping up with the happenings there recently, or since, well, ever. 

So, just like I finally did with things like the white European move west and happenings at places like Mount Rushmore, I began to dig into what was, in fact, IS, happening with Israel, Palestine, the Gaza Strip, etc. I asked most everyone I knew, be they Christian, Jewish, or something in between about what they knew about what was happening in the Middle East and why we were supporting Israel. I got varying opinions (as you might expect), but the lead-in was nearly always, "Well, it's a complicated situation, but..." 

But I'm here to tell you, from where I'm standing, based on just a little more digging (I am NOT professing to be any kind of Middle East expert) it is NOT complicated. In fact, it isn't complicated at all. So, should you be open-minded enough to consider what it is I've found, let's talk about why I, in fact, do not stand with Israel. 

Let's clear up something first. For starters, not standing with Israel does NOT mean I don't care about Israeli people or Jews. What I'm about to discuss has absolutely nothing to do with one's "Jewishness." I've been called an Anti-Semite twice this week, and nothing could be further from the truth.  Accusing me of antisemitism is a gaslighting technique to avoid facing a hard truth.  To be clear, I do not support the Israeli government. The people are just like us and want what we do...to be understood.

Furthermore, I do NOT support the recent actions of Hamas. What Hamas has done is terrorism, plain and simple. And whether or not Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people, and whether or not Israel funds Hamas to discredit the Palestinians, what Hamas has been doing is wrong. But, so is what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for decades. Israel has been raining down genocide on the Palestinians in the name of God since WWII, and folks, that's just not okay.

How did this all get started? (I'm going to paraphrase a lot! I'm writing a blog, not a book). It may not surprise you to learn this is a religious war over, of all things, property. Apparently, some 6,000 years ago, the bearded sky man himself promised Abraham a "promised land." Abraham then spent some 40 years in the desert looking for said promised land, but never found it. Apparently, it turns out that land is Palestine.

Fast forward a few years to say, c. 1947, prior to which there was no geographic Israel, and the good ole Christian folks of the US of A supported the Jewish people in claiming lands in Palestine...violently, I might add. It was ordained by God, after all, and it was time the Israelites got their land. And besides, Israel was the only democratic state in the region and the United States needed stability (aka, someone who believes like they do) in the region so that we could peacefully get, you guessed it, oil. And so, the killing of innocent men, women, and children in the name of God to claim the holy land was begun and it's been going on for close to a century now. 

This should sound familiar to you. Remember those white, European settlers who landed on the beach with a mandate from the Queen of England to "claim lands in the name of England?" Well, 54 million indigenous people and 98% of the native grasslands later, and they've done exactly that. They wiped out an entire, innocent population with no mandate other than an order from the Queen.

And how about the Crusades? How many people were slaughtered during that mess in the name of Christianity, and more specifically, Catholicism? And that leads me straight to the war we continue to wage in the Middle East over an attack on US soil. The number of deaths from 9/11 has now multiplied by the tens of thousands over a "war on terrorism" with the likes of Al Qaeda. 22 years. Twenty. Two. Years we've been waging war with an "enemy" we could have wiped out in 10 minutes. Follow the money.

The US is likely funding Al Qaeda so they can continue to wage war, because wars make the rich richer. Israel is likely funding Hamas in the same way, to not only discredit the Palestinians, but so they can continue to wage war that makes...the rich richer. In much the same way, the US funds drug cartels. You remember Ronald Reagan and the 1980's don't you? 

So, you think this is complicated because it's a religious war in a region that has been at odds for centuries. I say it has nothing to do with religion, or being Jewish, or some mandate from god. I say it's as simple as right or wrong and it isn't that difficult to figure out. Want to know who the bad guys are? The terrorists?

If you believe the slaughter of innocent indigenous people in the name of the Queen was ok; if you think enslaving millions of Black people was ok, while proclaiming Christianity, was acceptable; if you think the Israeli government slaughtering innocent Palestinians to claim land promised by the word of god in an ancient text is prophetic, or that continuing to wage war with Al Qaeda in a war we could have won in minutes is "just the way things are," then you don't have to look very far for the religious, terroristic, cultist extremist...

It's you.

It's really that simple.

Namaste,

Matt

 

Thoughts and Prayers

"Positive thoughts and prayer have been the best means available, since the beginning of time, to transform darkness to light."

~Cat Stevens~

 

 

“Mankind have such a deep stake in inward illumination, that there is much to be said by the hermit or monk in defense of his life of thought and prayer.”

 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

 

If you've followed me for any length of time at all, you can probably guess what I'm about to say about Mass Shootings and Thoughts and Prayers. And you'd probably be wrong. I'll be the very first to admit, every time I hear of a mass shooting (which seems to be almost daily) and hear of your thoughts and prayers regarding said shooting, I'm tempted to tell you where to stick your thoughts and prayers. But, I've changed. Or, at least, I'm changing. All you hard-core followers need to hang in there.

 

It would seem what we need is policy change. Seemingly, we need common sense gun control and legislation that make it more difficult for "bad" people to have guns. And I'm not suggesting that isn't still a direction in which we can go. But gun control doesn't work, does it? Even the hard core gun control people like me are beginning to understand that legislation, regardless of how sweeping, won't necessarily keep guns out of the hands of people who want to use them for purposes of mass destruction......or singular destruction for that matter. Sure, other countries have had some "success" with strict gun laws. But let's forget about borders and gun control for the moment. You and I both know the issue is bigger than that. Much bigger.

 

It's no longer about just gun control. It's about world hunger, economic collapse, homelessness, healthcare, climate change, immigration, and so much more! It's about eliminating the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots. It's about the meeting of basic human needs to which we are ALL entitled. It's about coming to the realization we're all one. We. Are. One. Every American and Russian are one. Every plant, animal, human, and (if they're out there) alien, are one. One! We're all made of the same ancient star dust. We aren't OF earth. We were put here. Either on purpose or by some cosmic accident, no one knows. But we are all the same. Until we change that basic understanding, nothing really changes and we're all doomed. We've been here as a species before.

 

So, what will it take to make these sweeping changes? It will take a change in the collective consciousness. It will take arriving at a place where we realize our Oneness and begin to take care of each other on a global scale. On a cosmic scale. And how precisely do we make such a sweeping change? You guessed it.....Thoughts and Prayers.

 

Many years ago, I was having a conversation with a Catholic gentleman who was telling me about how fascinated he was to know that, during mass, people all over the world were praying the same prayer. He could feel the power of that "group awareness." And if you're still with me, and have followed me here, or Facebook, or have read my book, or anywhere else, you know I'm not a Christian. I'm a spiritual person constantly searching for an answer to the big questions. It's likely I'll never find them in total, but the search gives me purpose. It stretches my mind and nurtures my soul. I love science. And you would think that would put me in direct conflict with things like "prayer." (Call it whatever you want, actually). But, as it turns out, prayer and science are friends.

 

We've touched on this topic before, but science has blown the lid off this thing. Thoughts (prayers, meditation, whatever) produce energy in the brain. Energy has mass. And if energy has mass, then mass is influenced by gravity, which, in short, means thoughts can change things. Yeah. Yeah. I know. We're talking about things on a subatomic scale. But what if.....what. if. we could multiply that subatomic movement times 8 billion? Kinda makes you wonder if we could change some things doesn't it? Or, at the very least, influence them?

 

Group Think is a thing. It works. If you don't believe me, consider something we've all witnessed, Mob Mentality, as a negative example. How many of us who don't "pray" have witnessed the influence of a prayer group? It's difficult to deny results. Collectively, we can make a change. One at a time, we can begin to use the power of our thoughts to influence the outside world. We can come from a place of love until someone else uses THEIR thoughts to influence the outside world, and so on, and so on, and so on.

 

Sure, it's a really tall order. It's an order of Everest scale, but it's really the only way we're going to change things and save our species. Basic needs must be met. If we're to consider ourselves an advanced species, then no one should be without food, shelter, or medical care. No one should be afraid of being gunned down in their school, office, or place of worship. We HAVE to start taking care of each other. It's not easy. And I hate to admit it, but it all starts with Thoughts and Prayers.

 

I'll take all I can get.

 

Namaste